Confidence

I love watching people, especially as you think of the clich?s flashing from their walk and body language.  In any big city, especially one like New York, the stories are amazing.  They range from an “I’m cool; don’t mess with me” to “am I alive?  I need some attention”.  Confidence, fear, arrogance, uncertainty, openness, and self driven are all present.  The stories are waiting for someone to see and understand.  The interactions are sitting on the table, gifts for anyone passing by.  Myths are masquerading and mingling with facts.
 
As I think of my own stride, wondering how different my intent is from the story I tell, I wonder if I understand the community in which I live.  It is far too easy to be confident; resting on yesterday’s success.  Whatever the particulars are in your life, metaphorically we all find ourselves remember what worked and telling ourselves that “I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured as easily as a boy taking a bird's eggs from a nest.  Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse, I gathered the world in my basket, and no one so much as fluttered a wing or squawked or even chirped.” (Isaiah 10.14)  Yet was it so easy.  Is this really what happened?
 
I find there is much more to the story.  First, our success rests as much with the people who walk along beside us as with our self.  Second, our confidence needs to be founded on something different than what we have, are, or will do.  Third, we have very good reasons to be confidence – yet they may not be what first flashes in our minds.
 
It’s hard to let go of our actions.  For many, my self included most of the time, they are what define us.  There is an alternative view.  Confidence can come in and though Divinity; how Divinity views and values you and me.  Confidence can come in knowing we are part of a great community with shared values, priorities, and commitments.  Confidence is with us, waiting to be held.