Are you looking for validation? Who doesn’t like to be affirmed? Are you in the right state for validation, or should you work toward improvement before validation is appropriate? If you know that you are not where you could be or should be would it be better to make some progress before looking for approval? But can you wait for the completion of your development before getting approval? For this is a lifelong process. Acceptance may be a better goal than validation. Are you content to be accepted now, even as a work in progress, as you move ahead toward full maturity?

Do you earn your living at a desk or work with your hands? It takes a large workforce to construct the buildings and keep the lights on and the water flowing and the food grown and delivered and everything else essential to modern life, but there is a greater and greater divide between those who work with words, and those who work with their hands. Are those with advanced education capable of being arrogant and condescending toward those who do not? Those who labor may not qualify as the least of these but life as you know it depends on their service.

Are you familiar with the passage about the Kingdom of Heaven suffering violence, and the violent taking it by force? Do you find this to be a difficult passage? Does it seem impossible that the Kingdom of Heaven would suffer violence? Ponder the potential meanings of this and consider the second part of the passage. Is violence toward the Kingdom of Heaven rewarded? You could rephrase this as spiritually aggressive. Think of this in the context of the promise that you will find if you seek, and the thing of highest value should be your first priority.

Do you like quick and easy results? I offer you the promise of transformation, but I do not promise that it will be quick or easy. Is this something you want? Are you as interested if you know going into it that it is a long and difficult process? How much of your identity can you put up for grabs at any one time? Five percent? Are you willing to stay with it for the duration? Consider my love for you and the magnitude of my investment in making this promise. Are you convinced it is available because you have seen people in whom the change is a reality?