0:00:00 - 0:00:19 I'm putting a video link in the description. I want you to go watch. It's a rendition of Oh Holy Night. And that's an interesting song because it's one of these songs where it's, it's hard to capture the soul. And um it's probably the case that most performances of it did not benefit the world. Um But 0:00:19 - 0:00:40 here's one that I think does and what I want you to think about is how uh this lady, she didn't have to record this and put it on the web to share with the world and uh imagine uh how much worse off the world would be if she hadn't done it. It looks like there are about 100,000 views on that video. And 0:00:39 - 0:01:03 uh those are 100,000 touches that wouldn't have occurred if she hadn't done that. Now, music is easier to understand this concept with this concept of, of soul, of like sincere connection with the depth of what you have to give the world. Um I've spoken about this idea in terms like dance to the music 0:01:03 - 0:01:25 with your heart. That's a phrase, not term, but I'll write more about this and say more about this. But I wanted to make a brief video about the importance of this from, from a maybe a different facet than you thought about. So um as you draw closer, as a person draws closer to God, which is more of 0:01:25 - 0:01:54 a, a dimmer switch, continuous measurement than a binary light switch type measurement. Um The more you draw to the closer you draw to God, um The more of the good you see in other people, both potential and actualized. And as you draw nearer the value you find in different things changes because it 0:01:54 - 0:02:25 starts, it, it, it also draws closer to God's value of things and people. So part of what changes is you start to find tremendous value in things that people take for granted or don't even notice or maybe even hate that all that happens. And um I know a lot of people who have capacity to do more and 0:02:25 - 0:03:02 better than they do. And I want to say specifically what I mean by that. In this case, God floods the world with goodness through the capacity. He gifts people to do things that testify of him. Now lamentably, the professing Christian world has an extremely narrow idea of what God is like. Uh sidestepping 0:03:01 - 0:03:28 the question of the accuracy of that idea. Let's just think about breadth. If I go into a situation where I'm in a room that's beautifully arranged. I see the father in that arrangement. When I hear a song that's performed with soul independent of what the song might be about, what the artist thinks 0:03:28 - 0:04:09 the song might be about. I hear God in that song, it reminds me of heaven. I see heaven in people's appearances, in their feelings, in their desires, in their motivations and um in the things they do or don't do and many other circumstances. And, uh again, these things are on a continuum and so it can 0:04:09 - 0:04:39 keep going and, and you can get more and more out of the same situations as, as other people do more and more than other people do out of the same exact situations. And so Jesus challenged us to live our lives in such a way that would be akin to a candle on a hill. And, and so that when people see that 0:04:39 - 0:05:07 candle, they don't see us, they see more of the father and they appreciate more of the father and think of what a high invitation, what a, what a tremendous call and opportunity that is. And I think one reason we miss out on this so much is again, that narrow definition and we don't have the slightest 0:05:06 - 0:05:31 understanding of just how much we can impact the world beyond the limits of the senses of ourselves and other people. And I'll give you an example. Um Well, I'll, I'll state the principle, then I'll give you examples. The principle is absolutely everything you experience affects you. Examples of this 0:05:31 - 0:05:52 . So you go outside, even if you don't perceive it, it affects you. Now, if you perceive it, it can have a greater effect or a lesser effect, that's, um, you can, you can, uh, impede the effect of evil through understanding and you can increase the effect of good through understanding. But if you go 0:05:51 - 0:06:15 outside and you're surrounded by living things that nourishes you in ways that you probably can't detect on a biochemical level. There's vitamin D from the sun. Uh I guess you can harm yourself too. You can get sunburn even on a cloudy day, right? But they are beneficial uh interactions that are occurring 0:06:15 - 0:06:39 that lie outside of what you can perceive. And as you draw closer to God, you perceive more of these things explicitly. But, um, anyway, a lot could be said about that. So if you're one of these people that have this talent or capacity is a better way of saying it, if you have a capacity for good, whatever 0:06:39 - 0:07:03 that might be and you're bearing that gift in the dirt, you're doing so much harm to the world and to yourself by doing that, you're withholding so much good and it probably lies way beyond what you can perceive right now. And so, um, my advice for you is to flash your butt. So that's funny. But let 0:07:03 - 0:07:23 me explain. So, lightning bugs, I've talked about them before, but um, they will gravitate towards lightning bugs with brighter butts than theirs. So they flash their butts and they'll head to the brighter light and it's an interesting thought experiment to think. So, I think people that hold back, they 0:07:22 - 0:07:44 probably don't really think about holding back. Um, but if they did, I suspect that they'd realize that that one of the prime reasons they hold back, it's because they're still operating in a responsive kind of attitude to the world. They're acting like, uh, creatures who are acted upon instead of creatures 0:07:43 - 0:08:09 who proactively act. And so they're waiting to see a brighter light than theirs so that they can comfortably shine a little less and just not have to worry about anything. The problem with that is that if the lightning bugs did that, none of them would flash anything, right? So you won't see a brighter 0:08:08 - 0:08:35 light usually until you flash your light. And so it's this weird chain of lights that happens and this is a powerful analogy and it goes way deeper than I want to go into here or have time to. But you can look for me to talk more about that or write more about that. But I encourage you to take up this 0:08:35 - 0:09:08 call from the Lord to really um make the most of everything that he's given you the capacity to do because there are so many people here and now and also later who will benefit from you doing that. There's a reason that God gave you these capacities and there's tremendous joy to be had and given through 0:09:07 - 0:09:33 making the most out of them. So s the song of your heart, dance to the music in your heart and do whatever it is that God created you to be able to do better than those around you because it's your gift to the world, but it's also his gift to the world and he sent you here so that you could share that 0:09:33 - 0:09:58 with other people. So I hope you, you take courage in doing that. It's not always easy to put yourself out there. But I have a feeling if you had a better idea of the value of you doing that and what it would mean to the people who are hungering and thirsting to have whatever it is that you have to give 0:00:00 - 0:00:19 I'm putting a video link in the description. I want you to go watch. It's a rendition of Oh Holy Night. And that's an interesting song because it's one of these songs where it's, it's hard to capture the soul. And um it's probably the case that most performances of it did not benefit the world. Um But 0:00:19 - 0:00:40 here's one that I think does and what I want you to think about is how uh this lady, she didn't have to record this and put it on the web to share with the world and uh imagine uh how much worse off the world would be if she hadn't done it. It looks like there are about 100,000 views on that video. And 0:00:39 - 0:01:03 uh those are 100,000 touches that wouldn't have occurred if she hadn't done that. Now, music is easier to understand this concept with this concept of, of soul, of like sincere connection with the depth of what you have to give the world. Um I've spoken about this idea in terms like dance to the music 0:01:03 - 0:01:25 with your heart. That's a phrase, not term, but I'll write more about this and say more about this. But I wanted to make a brief video about the importance of this from, from a maybe a different facet than you thought about. So um as you draw closer, as a person draws closer to God, which is more of 0:01:25 - 0:01:54 a, a dimmer switch, continuous measurement than a binary light switch type measurement. Um The more you draw to the closer you draw to God, um The more of the good you see in other people, both potential and actualized. And as you draw nearer the value you find in different things changes because it 0:01:54 - 0:02:25 starts, it, it, it also draws closer to God's value of things and people. So part of what changes is you start to find tremendous value in things that people take for granted or don't even notice or maybe even hate that all that happens. And um I know a lot of people who have capacity to do more and 0:02:25 - 0:03:02 better than they do. And I want to say specifically what I mean by that. In this case, God floods the world with goodness through the capacity. He gifts people to do things that testify of him. Now lamentably, the professing Christian world has an extremely narrow idea of what God is like. Uh sidestepping 0:03:01 - 0:03:28 the question of the accuracy of that idea. Let's just think about breadth. If I go into a situation where I'm in a room that's beautifully arranged. I see the father in that arrangement. When I hear a song that's performed with soul independent of what the song might be about, what the artist thinks 0:03:28 - 0:04:09 the song might be about. I hear God in that song, it reminds me of heaven. I see heaven in people's appearances, in their feelings, in their desires, in their motivations and um in the things they do or don't do and many other circumstances. And, uh again, these things are on a continuum and so it can 0:04:09 - 0:04:39 keep going and, and you can get more and more out of the same situations as, as other people do more and more than other people do out of the same exact situations. And so Jesus challenged us to live our lives in such a way that would be akin to a candle on a hill. And, and so that when people see that 0:04:39 - 0:05:07 candle, they don't see us, they see more of the father and they appreciate more of the father and think of what a high invitation, what a, what a tremendous call and opportunity that is. And I think one reason we miss out on this so much is again, that narrow definition and we don't have the slightest 0:05:06 - 0:05:31 understanding of just how much we can impact the world beyond the limits of the senses of ourselves and other people. And I'll give you an example. Um Well, I'll, I'll state the principle, then I'll give you examples. The principle is absolutely everything you experience affects you. Examples of this 0:05:31 - 0:05:52 . So you go outside, even if you don't perceive it, it affects you. Now, if you perceive it, it can have a greater effect or a lesser effect, that's, um, you can, you can, uh, impede the effect of evil through understanding and you can increase the effect of good through understanding. But if you go 0:05:51 - 0:06:15 outside and you're surrounded by living things that nourishes you in ways that you probably can't detect on a biochemical level. There's vitamin D from the sun. Uh I guess you can harm yourself too. You can get sunburn even on a cloudy day, right? But they are beneficial uh interactions that are occurring 0:06:15 - 0:06:39 that lie outside of what you can perceive. And as you draw closer to God, you perceive more of these things explicitly. But, um, anyway, a lot could be said about that. So if you're one of these people that have this talent or capacity is a better way of saying it, if you have a capacity for good, whatever 0:06:39 - 0:07:03 that might be and you're bearing that gift in the dirt, you're doing so much harm to the world and to yourself by doing that, you're withholding so much good and it probably lies way beyond what you can perceive right now. And so, um, my advice for you is to flash your butt. So that's funny. But let 0:07:03 - 0:07:23 me explain. So, lightning bugs, I've talked about them before, but um, they will gravitate towards lightning bugs with brighter butts than theirs. So they flash their butts and they'll head to the brighter light and it's an interesting thought experiment to think. So, I think people that hold back, they 0:07:22 - 0:07:44 probably don't really think about holding back. Um, but if they did, I suspect that they'd realize that that one of the prime reasons they hold back, it's because they're still operating in a responsive kind of attitude to the world. They're acting like, uh, creatures who are acted upon instead of creatures 0:07:43 - 0:08:09 who proactively act. And so they're waiting to see a brighter light than theirs so that they can comfortably shine a little less and just not have to worry about anything. The problem with that is that if the lightning bugs did that, none of them would flash anything, right? So you won't see a brighter 0:08:08 - 0:08:35 light usually until you flash your light. And so it's this weird chain of lights that happens and this is a powerful analogy and it goes way deeper than I want to go into here or have time to. But you can look for me to talk more about that or write more about that. But I encourage you to take up this 0:08:35 - 0:09:08 call from the Lord to really um make the most of everything that he's given you the capacity to do because there are so many people here and now and also later who will benefit from you doing that. There's a reason that God gave you these capacities and there's tremendous joy to be had and given through 0:09:07 - 0:09:33 making the most out of them. So s the song of your heart, dance to the music in your heart and do whatever it is that God created you to be able to do better than those around you because it's your gift to the world, but it's also his gift to the world and he sent you here so that you could share that 0:09:33 - 0:09:58 with other people. So I hope you, you take courage in doing that. It's not always easy to put yourself out there. But I have a feeling if you had a better idea of the value of you doing that and what it would mean to the people who are hungering and thirsting to have whatever it is that you have to give 0:09:57 - 0:10:01 to the world. I think you'd be more willing to do that.