I Am Only One - "The Self That I Long to Believe In"

LifeTalk Script

I Am Only ‘One’

Understanding Our Impact

 

“I am only one but still I am one.  I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.”

• Edward Everett

I am only one. That’s all I am. I am only one and I will always be only one. I was born as one, I will live as one, and on the day of my death I will die as one. 

 

Living as Being Only One

And so, because I am only one, I relegate myself to being only one. I surrender to this weak singularity.  I am obscure, so much so that I can hardly define myself or my purpose as held against the billions of others within which my existence becomes swallowed up and lost.  As held against history, time and creation, I will enter with barely a sound and I will exit in the same manner.

And in relegating myself to being one and only one, I unwittingly embrace the limitations that I perceive are part and parcel of being one and only one. I become convinced of what I think being one means and subsequently what it does not mean.

 

The Fears of Being “One”

            The Fear of Not Being Enough

I think that we fear that being one is not being enough.  Being one is too often seen as being inadequate.  The world out there is not some massive mass of people.  It is a collection of individuals.  It’s a bunch of ‘ones.’  By and large, those individuals experience life pretty much the same way that we do.  It’s all just a collection of ‘ones.’  It’s a collection of people that are each one individual just like we are one person.  While being one makes us perfectly suited to impact all the other ones around us, we still fear that being one is not enough.

 

            The Fear that We Can’t be Loud Enough

I also think that we fear that our single voice is not loud enough.  We don’t have the volume to be heard over the raucous, roar and interminable noise in our world.  We can’t possibly scream loud enough or long enough to be heard in the ruckus and racket that defines the world around us.  So our voices are drowned out.  Yet, we need to remember that we’re not speaking to the world around us.  We’re speaking to the ones around us.  And because that’s the case, there’s plenty of them and we’re plenty loud enough.

 

            The Fear of Being Rejected

I think that maybe our greatest fear is that we will be heard, and that in being heard we’ll be rejected or discounted or blown-off.  It seems that our single biggest fear is rejection.  What if we’re heard and in the hearing we’re labeled as stupid, naïve or ignorant?  What if we’re heard and then we’re slapped with accusations of being politically incorrect, culturally ill-informed, biased, mistaken at some fundamental level, or being something of a faith-based moron? What if we take a stand? What if we refuse to compromise? What if what we’re saying isn’t popular or trendy or it’s absent in the talking points of a screaming media?  What if?  I think that we need to understand that there are ‘ones’ out there who share our convictions and who understand the oppressive burdens that birthed those convictions. Indeed, we are ‘one’ but we are not alone in being ‘one.’ 

 

            The Fear of Failure

What if I step out as one in the midst of the chaos and the darkness and the malaise, and what if I fail? What if nothing is different? What if I am shamed into submission as my failures bring me face-to-face with the limitations of being only ‘one’ that I hoped were not true?  What if I try and nothing changes? What if I step up and get knocked down?  Then through some misplaced hope and fanciful zeal I have done nothing other than convince myself that being only ‘one’ is truly limited to being only ‘one.’ And I hardly think that I could live with that.

 

            The Fear of Responsibility

But what if this one that I am is not a one in isolation?  What if I can change things?  What if I can impact the world?  What if?  Maybe we don’t want to be responsible for that much power.  Maybe we don’t want to shoulder some sort of bold mantel, draw our resources around us, and press out against so much of what is destroying so many. Maybe under the right circumstances we’d be willing to following someone who would be willing to do that, but we don’t want to be the one doing that. We prefer to leave such exploits to others and follow them at a comfortable distance, or track them from an even greater distance. But, what if we actually pull it off and are left with the responsibility of having done that? The responsibility might be a bit too much for us.    

 

The Opportunity of Being “One”

I am only one in a mammoth sea of humanity within which my main and often single goal is simply to survive. But I am one, and my oneness is sufficient to forgo surviving and embrace living. I am only one and despite the rather lackluster view of myself, being one is enough.

I am only one, and because I am, the reality of my existence can change the reality of everyone around me. In the span of this minute, or this hour, or this day, or in the span of history itself my existence ‘can’ be noted, and because I am one it can register enough to acknowledge that I was here. The briefest notations that I have made or will make on the pages of history can add moving lines of inspiration in the seemingly infinite volumes of tightly written copy that stretch from mankind’s earliest moments to his eventual demise because I am one.

I am in union with the Infinite ‘One’ Who renders me capable of being everything that I am not. I have yet to understand that my oneness is never held solely to itself. That my oneness is the seed of a greater greatness that when joined with God, with those others He brings alongside of me, with the dreams He has implanted within me, with the purpose He has bestowed upon me; this ‘one’ will remain one, but it will be a one that has moved leagues beyond its own oneness. Yes, I am only one, but I am one in league with a God Who makes my oneness infinite. 

You have one chance at being ‘one.’ You have been granted one life to touch the other ‘ones’ around you. Being one is being enough. Life’s about being intentional about being the best ‘one’ that you can be, and intentionally touching all the other ones around you in a manner that transforms them ‘one’ at a time. Be the one that you were designed to be and change the world by being that one, for despite your poor assessment of yourself you will always remain this beautiful one. 

 

Closing

Today’s podcast is drawn from the book, “The Self That I Long to Believe In – The Challenge of Building Self-Esteem.” Get your copy today at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever books are sold.

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