“It is enough that you are yourself.”

H,

I keep having this problem with how we play the deserve game. It is enough that we are human. The idea that the answer to any form of discrimination is to be excellent in your personal conduct so you can usurp the ignorant, is a problem in itself. It is like we need to justify our existence to the hateful. We do not. It is not for them to inspire us or to light our fire. We do a disservice to equality when we tie it to achievement. We are equal ab initio. We have inalienable rights from the moment we are born. It doesn’t matter if we can sing, dance, run fast, jump high, read a book, or have the right anatomy. The respect for human life and dignity cannot be utilitarian. It has to be automatic.

It is enough that you are yourself. It is enough that you exist. The rest, what you make of your life in a grander sense, does not affirm or disaffirm your inherent value. We do ourselves a disservice by tying ourselves to the standards of a fallen world. We are here to be ourselves. We do not run this race to find meaning in transient stories of victory. It could well be that all victories on earth are pyrrhic in the end.

I feel I should clarify that this is not a diss on achievements or goals or striving to do our best in any walk of life. It is a diss on tying meaning to outcomes we cannot possibly control. We are called to live in the deep. These shallow waters have nothing to offer us. They do not speak to our spiritual journey in any lasting way. Ours is the fullness of the earth. Not the dregs. The fullness to come. Amen.