I know it seems silly and I know that it seems lame, but do you ever find yourself taking an internal survey of yourself? I mean like a deep diving self-examination of who you are now. I find myself doing this more and more. I don't really remember it being a conscious decision, I don't really remember when it started, I just know that I have become increasingly self-aware. Combine this with a desire to want to improve myself and I have found myself staring at myself in the proverbial mirror, ready to make some changes, to take responsibility and move into this next chapter of my life, the best me possible.
I know that sounds all Joel Osteen, but when the guys right, the guy is right. There is a better version of me available, which also means that there is a better version of you available.
Every single week Facebook updates their app in the Apple App Store. EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. This means that they are proactively working on their product. They don't ever stop updating. The fine folks at Facebook want your USER EXPERIENCE to be as seamless as possible so that you spend an ever-increasing amount of time on their app engaging in as many ways as possible. For our friends over at Facebook, they want to create the best possible experience for you in order to maximize your time on the app, so that they can maximize the time that you spend on the app for their advertisers. Here is some exciting news for you, Facebook Mobile Ad Revenue in 2015 topped $2.9 Billion. That's right. According to Forbes, Facebook has 2.9 billion reasons to continue to create the best possible mobile app experience for you. I did mention that the figure mentioned was only mobile ad revenue right?
The world needs the best possible version of you.
At some level, we all hate change. But what if I told you that the life that you are living is not the best possible life that you could be living? A better version of you will be living a better version of your life. You may not have 2.9 billion reasons to change, but I can tell you that if you are willing to dive deep into yourself and begin some open heart surgery, the updates that you make are most certainly going to pay off. There is a guaranteed Return On Investment. How do I know that? Because that was the plan all along.
The plan was never for you to just exist. When we come into this world we are born with an uncapped potential. We are voracious learners, we internalize everything we can and in the first few years of life, the miraculous happens. We rapidly change, adapt, and transform. But don't think that our development stops at our motor skills. We learn to walk, but we also learn to talk. We learn to respond properly to situations, even to reason. Every day we celebrate a different landmark as we grow and mature. Annually, we celebrate the day that we were born and in celebrating that we celebrate every milestone, every accomplishment. We reflect on how far we come.
But something happens when we get older. We keep getting older, but we stop growing. And I am not just talking about the fact that I never made it to my ideal height of 6 Foot Two Inches. It seems, the older we get, the more stuck in our ways we become. You and I become entrenched in our routines, and in some cases we do everything possible to prevent any change at all, in any area of our life.
But you weren't created to remain static. You were created with the intention of transformation. We were created for constant updates. You see whether you believe in a Creator or not, I do believe that their is a Divine Architect at work. You can call it any number of things. In Christian communities we have all kinds of language around it... but the reality is that we were made for constant updates, but we weren't made to handle this alone.
I don't know if you've ever watched any medical shows, so I am just gonna come out and say it. I love me some Grey's Anatomy. There is something incredible about watching surgery. Have you ever thought about the fact that doctor's literally cut you open and stick their hands into the depths of your body. They hold, and stitch, and repair your vital organs. They are literally in the deepest most parts of your body. But here's the thing. They are surgeons. They are trained professionals. They have a vast knowledge base and they know and understand the intricacies of the human ability, to the best of our collective knowledge.
So what am I getting at? Even the best heart surgeon doesn't perform open heart surgery on themselves. They don't have the sight lines or the reach, not to mention, the fact that they would have to be awake, and trust me, their is a reason they put you to sleep... ain't nobody wants to feel that.
Their is a Master Heart Surgeon, who has the most intimate knowledge about who you are, but who also knows exactly who you are created to be. I want to encourage you to dig deep into yourself, and begin some manual updates. Maybe their are some lifestyle choices that you can make, like eating better, or cutting back on sugar, but also begin to dive into who you are as a person. When something frustrates you, ask yourself why. When something makes you happy, or causes you an emotional response, start asking yourself why. The more you can understand yourself, the better you will be able to open up different areas of yourself to some open heart surgery.
How Do I Perform A Spiritual Update?
1. YOU NEED JESUS - If you haven't done so already, you are going to need to invite Jesus Christ into you life
2. BECOME SELF AWARE - They say ignorance is bliss for a reason. Not knowing is the ultimate excuse, but once you know about, the question becomes, what are you going to do about it?
3. GIVE PERMISSION - Just like you adjust your privacy settings on Social Media, we need to adjust the Privacy Settings on Hearts and give Jesus permission to do His thing.
4. EMBRACE TRANSFORMATION - Baby you may have been born this way, but God loves you so much that He isn't going to live you that way!
5. DOWNLOAD THE UPDATE - You are going to need to create some time and space for this work to go down. Start with 5 or 10 minutes of dedicated time, you can call this prayer, or conversation or even a download. But this is time when you get personal, when you get real with Jesus Christ, when your relationship becomes more than just a badge you wear. Honesty is the best policy because He knows everything anyways. This is where you say your piece, but you give Him time to speak, sometimes the best thing we can do is listen and wait, while he performs the update on our hearts.
Brett Esslinger is a Husband, Dad, Son, Brother, Pastor, Speaker, Leader, Writer whose life goal is to help people unlock their potential and fulfill their life's purpose.
Follow Brett on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook: @brettesslinger and of course over on Snapchat at: brett.esslinger