Actually an Artist

“The gift received from courage is always moreness.”

-Brie Stoner

In this quote, Brie is talking to Felicia Morrell about embracing ‘and’: I’m afraid AND it’s the right direction to go. I will lose (status, role, relationships) AND I will gain myself. She is reflecting on life changes and decisions she made and how much she stood to lose, but how much more she gained by stepping out in courage. You gain back more than you lose.

Isn’t that like the story of Job? Or what Jesus taught? We literalize the Bible at the expense of the deeper, metaphorical, truth of it. In the midst of an argument among his disciples, Jesus says:

Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.

-Matthew 20:24-28, The Message

Earlier, Jesus says this:

“Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.”

-Matthew 20:16, The Message

Our directive is clear: we must be willing in life to continually lose out on the whatever of the moment to gain the moreness of who and what we are. We must give up power to gain love (see Powerful Quotes /1). We must say goodbye to a home or community or relationship to venture into the wilderness of becoming. I love that Brie’s podcast is named UnKnowing. It’s such a powerful message to embrace. We must accept our own unknowing in the great scriptures of religions in order to embrace the Truth they are speaking into our times. It is a loss, that certainty, that comfort. But the moreness will come.