How would you answer this question?
Who do you say you are?
This is something that a lot of us don't really give much thought to. We define our identities by our occupations, relationships, hobbies, gender and a whole slew of other things. But do these things really encapsulate who we really are?
Perhaps the question is are these things we define ourselves with in line with reality or what we wish were true of ourselves?
The story is told of a young circus elephant that was attached by a heavy chain to a large stake driven into the ground. No matter how this elephant pulled and strained he couldn't free himself of the chain or the sake. After struggling for several days eventually the elephant gave up. He learned that he could never pull free. From then on the elephant no longer needed to be chained. In fact, the chains were replaced with a slender rope. As the elephant grew, his strength naturally got greater. He was so strong in fact that he could have easily pulled down the circus tent if he had wanted to. But because of his early training he believes he cannot break the rope, let along pull down a tent. Unfortunately, the circus where this elephant worked caught on fire one day. Instead of breaking his tender bonds and escaping to freedom, the elephant stayed tied to the stake, trumpeting for his life and eventually burning to death.
Tragic story, but I tell it to make a point.
So many of us are like this elephant. We have a mountain of potential stored up in us. But because over time we have been told over and over that we can't, we start to believe. We are told by people around us that we can never succeed. We are told that dreams never come true. We are told that money is for the greedy. We won't ever be rich. And after years and years of having these messages drilled into us, we start to believe it. And what's worse some of us even start to propagate these untruths and pull others down.
Truth is God has created each of us for a purpose, otherwise we wouldn't be alive today. And within each of us there is a great potential for greatness.
The hard part is realizing this greatness, daring to dream again, and then coming up with a solid plan on how to achieve our goals and visions. But just because something is hard doesn't mean it's impossible. And just because we've been told our whole lives that we can't doesn't mean that our dreams can't become reality.
So if no one has ever given you permission to dream, I give you that permission to dream. As someone great once said, "Dream big, because you will never be bigger than your dreams. Think big, because you will never be bigger than your thoughts."
