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Inhabiting the Gift You Already Are · Infinitely Precious

• 0:00
  Intro: Welcome to the Infinitely Precious podcast produced by Infinitely Precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
• 0:12
  James: Hello, beloved. It's me, James, and it's time for another it's time for us to be together again to share this companionship we are developing on this journey of living, of discovering more about our spirituality. Thank you for joining me on the Infinitely Precious podcast. I love this time, the opportunity to reflect with you about things I'm discovering or have been pondering. You may know if you've been listening to the podcast that we just finished a nine week series, the ripening series, where we talked about different aspects, different dimensions of spiritual life that are growing, that are ripening.
• 0:56
  We talked a little bit about the grounding of the word ripening in the work of Neil Douglas Klotz, someone who I've been reading very closely regarding Aramaic, the original language of Jesus, etcetera. And he says fairly clearly that the root good, tawa, in Aramaic rests in being ripe. And he talks a little bit about ripening, that the understanding in a first century Aramaic culture would have been one of ripening. Well, having spent these nine weeks talking about ripening, something else occurred to me that I'd like to talk about. This may turn into a series.
• 1:44
  I'm not yet sure. We'll see as I continue to ponder. But instead of focusing on the ripening aspect of our spiritual journey, wanted to think about the inhabiting portion. Learning to inhabit where we are right now. So there are different topics that come to my mind about ways to inhabit parts of our lives to be fully present in them.
• 2:11
  And one of the first ones that pops to my mind is actually the very origins of this Infinitely Precious podcast. I began to develop, it was sort of a gift to me, a way of speaking a kind of shorthand of what I think the gospel is all about. You hear it if you've listened to the Infinitely Precious podcast as one of my very last affirmations to you. Sometimes it happens in the middle, sometimes it happens in the beginning, and certainly our intro includes it. And that is this affirmation.
• 2:50
  You are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are. Now you may or may not believe that. And my saying it marginally may help you believe it more or not. For many of us who have struggled to see ourselves as precious, as loved, as a gift for who we are, if we have struggled with that, it has taken many years of therapy, of practice, of releasing, of working to get to a place where we might even begin sometimes to believe that is true. But I want to suggest to you that part of our spiritual life is coming to inhabit that truth.
• 3:38
  What would it look like in your life? What would it look like in my life? If I inhabited the truth, If I lived in the truth that I am already infinitely precious, that I am already unconditionally loved, that I am already a gift, that I'm not working to become those things I am those things. And so are you. What if I could inhabit that?
• 4:06
  What would that do to my life? What would it do to my outlook? You know, it's a funny thing today. I saw a reel. Yes, sometimes I get caught in reel holes too, if you do.
• 4:19
  R E E L holes rather than R E A L holes. I've been caught in a couple of the latter ones as well at various points in my life. But in this reel that I was watching, it was a new take on what would Jesus say. And it was about what would Jesus say to me if he heard me say the things I say to myself in the mirror about myself to others? What would Jesus counsel me about those things?
• 4:55
  And I think it's the same truth when it comes to inhabiting the truth that we are infinitely precious, that we're unconditionally loved, and that we're a gift for who we already are. One of the first things that drops out for me as soon as I inhabit that reality in my thinking, in my feeling, in my spirit is I no longer am in competition with anybody else so that I can get God's love or so that I can be better than someone else in some way. I only want to be the best me because I'm a gift for who I already am. I'm not a gift for being better than someone else. And sometimes I think that's been a message that we have heard.
• 5:49
  And when we simply inhabit, then all of the competition, the need to compete with anyone else for some limited amount of love, which by the way is also infinite and unconditional, drops away. It drops away. It may only drop away momentarily until we reclaim the self talk that is about ourselves being less than. But for a moment, for a moment in that freedom, the need to compete disappears. In addition, the need to be suspicious about the other disappears as well.
• 6:32
  I need to look at you and wonder what you're up to. I don't have to compare myself to you. I'm not in competition with you. You're not in competition with me. We are simply beings who in ourselves are precious, loved, and a gift.
• 6:55
  And to be precious, loved, and a gift is enough. It's enough. So it allows us to be present in our lives in ways that perhaps we weren't before to truly inhabit this life, to inhabit that phrase. And suddenly I begin to wander within as I think about myself as the infinitely precious unconditionally loved person that I am as the gift I already am, as you might do the same, if everyone else isn't exactly the same. If they aren't infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift they already are, you already are.
• 7:42
  And then the way I treat myself as an infinitely precious loved gift is different. And because I'm comfortable treating myself with kindness and love and respect and dignity, I become more free to treat you, the other, with kindness, dignity, and respect. And I begin to discover that you're not so much other. We're all a part of the same beautiful movement, the symphony of a universe in which we're a part. And instead of worrying about my horn being playing the loudest in the symphony, I now start to listen for, as I inhabit the moment, as I inhabit my own preciousness, I start to listen for the symphony around me.
• 8:33
  If you've ever sung in a choir or played in a band, part of what you have to learn to do is listen for the others around you. You don't want to over whelm them or be overwhelmed by them. You want to blend in with them. You want to become part of this beautiful symphony because it is the combination of all those pieces that brings out the beauty of the symphony. Your note is beautiful.
• 8:59
  The note you're playing, the gift that you are is beautiful. But you're no longer worried that you have to really toot your horn loud so that everyone else will know how precious you are, how loved you are, what a gift you are. You didn't have to prove it anymore. You already are. And inhabiting that space gives me a freedom.
• 9:24
  Albeit a brief one periodically because I still have that less than kind of self talk. But when I truly inhabit that, then I can say what I truly feel, what I truly think. And often those words that flow out of me that are what I'm truly thinking, truly feeling are words of encouragement, of hope, of help for the other. I don't have to be defensive about that. I'm allowed to speak what I see.
• 9:57
  And in the moments of knowing my own preciousness, my own lovedness, my own giftedness, what I see in the other, the truth that I see in the other is what a precious loved gift that person is as well. And so my truth, the truth that I speak into that, is one of encouragement, of beauty, of recognition of the other. It's learning to inhabit the gift that we already are. Inhabit that phrase. Now I have to say that as I began to talk about this, I began to realize there is a whole breadth of spaces that I want to talk about inhabiting.
• 10:45
  So I guess even though I began today saying this may or may not become a series, I'm pretty much expecting that it is becoming one because there are a number of things that we're not good at inhabiting that perhaps we should get some practice at, should talk about, think about the issues around, maybe look for some ways to better inhabit the life we have. So today marks the beginning of a new series, Inhabiting Our Life. What does it look like to inhabit it? Not just to ripen and to grow, but to inhabit the space we find ourselves in right now for who we are. Those are my thoughts for today.
• 11:29
  Remember, I've said it multiple times today but remember, you are Infinitely Precious. You are unconditionally loved for the gift you already are. So am I. It's been a wonderful time to be with you today. If this has been helpful to you, I encourage you please share it.
• 11:46
  Please share it. Maybe it'll be helpful to somebody else. It might be the exact words they need to hear. And quite frankly, it's why I put it out there. Try to put a word of encouragement and hope, of preciousness and loveless and giftedness into the space that sometimes may feel otherwise.
• 12:06
  But in any case, know you are precious, loved, and a gift. And thanks for being with me. Until the next time.