Embracing the Ego

I've been getting the message for several of my clients this month that it's time to let their light shine, to embrace their ego.  What? Some of you might be thinking.  I thought I was supposed to kill my ego, denounce my ego.  I thought EGO meant Easing God Out.  Yes, I used to as well.  But not so much anymore.

If my husband's doctor didn't have an ego the size of Texas, could he have cut a Y shaped opening into him and pumped his heart back to life?  I am thankful every day for that amazing doctor's ego.

I am so grateful that Martin Luther King, Jr. had the ego to say, "I have a dream."

Thank God that Ghandi had the ego to think that one man starving himself and speaking out could save an entire country.

Without Steve Job's huge ego, we wouldn't ever know the words "app" or "podcast" or "iPad." His ego has made this world a much better place.

Thomas Jefferson's ego may have led him to have an affair with his slave Sally Hemmings, but I'm grateful that his ego also led him to say, "All men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

His original line read "the pursuit of property" but after John Adams' and Ben Franklin's suggestion, he changed it because even they knew that "things" aren't our right, but rather happiness is.  It's our right to be happy, to be free, to have a life that makes our soul sing.

In order to have these things, to embrace these inalienable rights, we have to embrace our ego.  We have to enfold it within ourselves and OWN IT.

This week, I read for a client who was thinking of writing a book.  I told her I saw it being a big seller.  I said, "I think this is going to be big." She paused for a beat and then another.  Finally, she said, "I do too, but I'm afraid to think that. I mean who am I?"

Who are you?  You are a child of God.  You are created in the image of your Creator.  Each and everyone of us is a reflection of God.  God is reflected in my mediumship ability.  God is made known in your ability to teach people to read.  And in his ability to manage people and make them work as a team.  And in her ability to raise and nurture an amazing family.  And our Creator is reflected in his talent for inventing things and her knack for making people feel so good about themselves.  Each of us, everyone of us, is a reflection of God and when we denounce ourselves, limit ourselves and belittle our talents, we're denouncing our Creator, belittling the light within us.

I used to think I wasn't a good person if I thought I was a good person.  How crazy is that?  When someone complimented me, I would belittle it.  "Oh, thanks.  I got this on sale at Target."  Or "No, anyone else would have done the same thing." No.  No more.  I am a good person.  And not everyone else is.  And it's okay to think that.

You are a good person and you have a right to live your dream, a duty to fulfill your purpose so that you can make God's image manifest in you.

I used to recoil when I would read all those new agers who said we are God.  I would laugh and think, "Really?  So I created this universe? I created myself?  Give me a break."

I still don't believe I am God.

Far from it.

But, my favorite, favorite book, The Interior Castle by Theresa of Avila, has this thesis:  God is within us and we can only find God by searching inside of us.  She wrote this in 1577.

So am I God?  Are you?  No.

But God created us and is reflected in us.  We are made in God's image and it's our job to reflect that by fulfilling the purpose we were created to do and surrendering to that.

Sometimes, part of that surrendering includes owning the fact that we're wonderful and talented and great.  And that's okay.

We must keep our ego in check or else we'll believe we are a god.  But we must not kill our ego either.  That's just as dangerous as inflating our self worth.

Like everything in life, it's a balance.  So please, promise yourself that this week you'll embrace your ego.  Give it a try.  You are wonderful and amazing and gifted.  You are meant to shine and create and be happy.  It's your inalienable right.