“Take One Step Forward”
Here is another very powerful message for all found in the Torah reading of last week (Beshalach – Exodus 13:17-17:16).
The Jewish people have been freed by Pharaoh and just a few days after marching in the desert, they find that Pharaoh has changed his mind and his soldiers are chasing after them. As they look ahead they see the Red Sea. They are now stuck with the Red Sea before them and the soldiers behind them. They are asking themselves, “Is this is what we were freed for, to die here in the desert?” Anxious and distraught they break up into four different camps of thought. One says,” Let’s dive into to the sea and drown ourselves rather than be killed by the soldiers. One says, “Let’s just surrender and go back.” One says, “I’d rather die fighting than go back.” One says, “Let’s pray.” They approach Moses and ask him which approach to take and he tells them he will ask G-d. G-d’s answer is simply “Tell them to just take one step forward.” We all know what happened next.
As we move towards realizing our dreams, goals, and purpose, there will be those times when we reach our Red Sea. When we are confronted with fear or doubt by obstacles placed in front of us, or placed there by us. It is at those moments when we must remind ourselves “Just take one step forward.” When we know of others in that situation, we can also remind them.
“Let Yourself Go”
Freeing ourselves from our self-imposed Pharaoh requires commitment. It begins with the faith that you have a purpose and you matter to initially one or to many. With that faith will be the desire to explore for your purpose and express it. Commitment, faith, and desire all point to attitude. We have free-will and that’s the good news. We might think the bad news is that with free-will discovering our potential requires struggle. The proper attitude realizes that the struggle is really part of the good news. Paraphrasing from the song “Let My People Go”, sing along with me “Let myself go”
“Freedom is an internal achievement rather than an external adjustment.” – Adam Clayton Powell
“We have to believe in free will. We’ve got no choice.” – Isaac Bashevis Singer
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Dr. Viktor Frankl from his book “Man’s Search for Meaning”
Good News and Bad News
The bad news is you cannot get younger. The good news is you can be re-born or renewed. Every breath, every moment is given so that you may grow and come closer to fulfilling your ultimate potential. It is the world and you being re-created. When you see every moment as a gift for you to unwrap you are re-born. Unwrap that gift and you will find all that you need to become the newer and improved you.
“No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” – Heraclitus
“A man is what he is, not what he used to be.” – Yiddish Proverb
An Oldie but Goodie originally sent 4/5/11
You As Pharaoh
For the past few weeks, Jews in the weekly Torah portions have been reading about their time as slaves in Egypt and their being freed. Jews are commanded to constantly remember their slavery. One of the universal messages of remembering is the lesson that while we are no longer physical slaves, we are still slaves.
This time the Pharaoh is us and the slavery is of the self-imposed spiritual and emotional variety. That means the only one who can free you is you. We hold ourselves back from climbing our mountain that will lead us to being the person we were created to become.
We hold ourselves back with the “I can’ts” (see the inner-speak series). How we speak to our self and about our self translates into who we are. Believe in yourself, if you don’t, no one else will, and if you don’t why should they?
“Think good and it will be good.” – Rabbi Menachem Mendel
“You become what you think, even if you don’t think so.” – Dr. Morris Mandel
An example of the “I Can” way to speak to yourself
“I am only one, But still I am one. I cannot do everything, But still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” – Edward Everett Hale
Soul Elevating Quotes
“The virtue of angels is that they cannot deteriorate; their flaw is that they cannot improve. Humanity’s flaw is that we can deteriorate; but our virtue is that we can improve.” – Chassidic Proverb
“Man is endowed by nature with two eyes: one to see his neighbors’ virtues, the other to see his own faults.” – Chassidic Proverb
“If you carry your own lantern, you will endure the dark.” – Chassidic Proverb
A Soul Elevating Quote
“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.” – George Washington Carver
The Spinning Rabbi - Heart & Soul 