Let Your Light Shine!

Have you ever been afraid of your greatness? Of taking the next great step in your career, your creative expression, in love, or the place in your life where your heart is yearning to express? I have. I often marvel at the courage of myself and others when I really do get out of my own way and let my light shine. Let the Holy Spirit shine through me.  For years I had the quote below on my refrigerator so that everyday I would be reminded that maybe my fear wasn't of failure, but of success. I love the idea that I was born to make manifest the glory of God that is within me. To me this means that I glorify God by letting my light shine - by being Me! And, so does everyone else. 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,

talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking

so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest

the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people

permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear

               our presence automatically liberates others.

-Marianne Williamson as quoted by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 Inaugural Speech)

When you let your light shine, you change the world. You make it a better place for yourself and everyone else. So go ahead, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!