delara, interrupted

Andrew raised a rich and interesting point in his comment a few days ago - that some of us view nobility as an attribute or station to attain rather than an inherent quality to our nature. During the 6+ hours I spent on the plane last week going to and coming back from Tucson I mulled this over. And over. And connected some simple thoughts in this way:

First of all, the way nobility is described in scripture is something like "the state or quality of being exalted in character" where exalted is "intensified, heightened, glorified, honored, elevated" and such.

Then, if nobility is the inherent nature of man, there ought to be evidence of it in our early years. So, as we observe children, what signs do we see of nobility? Perhaps the confidence they have about what they know? Their innate kindness and compassion? Their purity? Their innate sense of people? And there are probably 50 or so other things we could cite that demonstrate how children embody an elevated human character.

In the physical world, nobility might look a perfect rose, fragrant and in full bloom. It might be a falcon flying as high as it can, its wings spread wide with majesty. An object or being fulfilling its inherent design in the most perfect way possible, but again - as an inherent function of its natural design. In other words, the rose didn't need to do anything during its growing years to be so perfect, and the falcon wasn't doing exercises every morning to be able to fly so high and majestically.

We are not necessarily unique in that we have nobility, but that nobility is a quality reflected in nature compels me to believe that it exists inherently within us as well. Perhaps our uniqueness lies in our ability to choose to continue exalting our character or not through our rational soul. How, then, do we cultivate a sense of nobility in ourselves? I would posit that through the transformative power of the word of God we continue to exalt our character.

For our girls night the last two months, we watched and discussed the film "What The Bleep Do We Know?" and there were some relevant themes that really resonated for me. The whole bit about how water can be affected by words, the power of loving oneself - to me, that demonstrates the power of the word of God to transform and empower us, if we take "word of God" to embody positive attributes and forces in the world.

In the book "The Four Agreements," Don Miguel Ruiz comments on the same power with the first agreement - "Be impeccable with your word." He explains how the word is the most powerful thing we have as humans - it is, in a sense, our power of creation. As such, I believe it has the power to help cultivate our sense of nobility or diminish it.

My life these days is, uh, challenging to say the least. And I know without a doubt that it is only through the power of the word of God (translated into MANY different kinds of actions - the love and support of my friends and family, my realization or tenuous grasp of spiritual insights, seemingly random events that help guide and direct me, etc.) that I am able to walk around like a normal human being and feel something close to wholeness. It transforms me in a way that is tangible to my experience as a human but difficult to put into words. Otherwise, I think I would really lose it.

Just some random thoughts...