// and now from the view of a descendent of the great sir francis drake//

self awareness is only valid in the context of societal awareness, the awareness of those around oneself, because each one exists in that context. any knowledge of yourself you may posses is intrinsically dependent upon your knowledge of your context. 

with man everything is relative. only with God is there any kind of absolute standard. 

the past year has been one of more uncertainty and unfamiliarity than ever before, and consequently also one of more pointed self examination than ever before. [and that’s saying something]. through all of these changes, something i’ve been realizing with increasing clarity is this: any truth i might discover or discern about myself is relative to the community or environment i am in. e.g. i am good at guitar. well, maybe in my living room with a few friends that is true, but enter into that living room another musician, and my talent, in comparison, has more than likely just diminished or even dwindled.  

but… not only is the truth relative, the significance or consequence of that truth is also relative. e.g. to community a, my musical ability might be the quality that makes me a huge hit, where as to community b, my musical ability might have no value whatsoever. 

now substitue musical ability in those examples for personality traits, personal interests, future goals, and—especially—morals….. and you now have some serious disparities in the works. 

so for someone like me, someone who strives to be conscious of his role and place in a given community, someone who puts a good amount of effort into monitoring himself and his community, and just as much effort into maintaining a good standing in that context, but also someone who consistently finds himself in several contexts in which differing standards and differing significances to those standards exist, it is not hard to see why one might start to look at oneself and feel a little bit…. lost. 

it’s a little bit more clear now why, at times this year, i’ve felt a little bit like a dingy in the middle of a giant ocean, being tossed around by the waves.

in the old days, without a north star, sailors would have no way to find their bearings at night. and sometimes, it’s tempting to feel that way myself. 

thankfully though, i have a north star in the night time. i have an anchor in the storm. whatever contexts or communities i might exist in in my daily life, there is one in which i exist that defines and penetrates them all. and that’s the context of God and his reality. and in this context, there are absolutes. without an absolute being, there can only be relativity. with an absolute being, relativity is redeemed. my pointed self examination is no longer an endless spiral of relativity, i have an absolute standard with which to compare myself. and the best part? according to that absolute standard, i am good enough. i am accepted. i am loved. not because of anything i did, but because of the standard that i have received through the gift of God’s grace. there is nothing that i or anyone else can do that will change my standing in His community. that is simply amazing. 

so now the challenge is to place more of my value in this one context, and remove it further from the other contexts. not that it’s not good to exist in those other contexts, it’s just important that the one be my anchor, my north star, the one i go to for my fulfillment. because when it comes down to it, it’s the only one that really matters. 

and i encourage you to do the same. think about it this week, and try to figure out what it would look like for you to take steps in that direction. 

and my favorite part…. with an anchor, with a north star, you should never be afraid to gather up your sails, push off of the familiar, and let the winds of adventure take hold of you.