Most people live in one of two camps. They either attach their identity to outcomes and ride every win and loss like a verdict on their worth. Or they detach entirely, protecting themselves from disappointment by never really investing in the first place.
Neither is freedom. One makes you a hostage to results. The other makes you a spectator to your life.
There is a deeper reason we reach for these camps. Life offers no guaranteed safety.
I’ve observed this fear in myself. The fear of losing things that are irreplaceable. When you build a life that you love and realize what matters, it is a blessing. And yet, if you’re not cautious, it can be a curse.
There’s something very humbling about the thought that a masked gunman could walk into either of my kids’ schools. A person could be looking at their cell phone, cross a painted yellow line, and hit someone I love in oncoming traffic. A phone call could come informing me that someone I love is gone.
Those are all things that, for whatever reason, my mind decides to present me with.
We don’t own anything on this earth. We rent.
If you sit with that honestly, you realize the only thing any of us ever truly has is our perspective and the meaning we create with it. Not the circumstances. Not the outcomes. The internal posture we choose to engage life in.
The Unconditional Yes is my answer to whatever lesson life wants me to have.
It is not optimism. It is not false faith. It is a promise I am making to myself. Even if my greatest fears are realized, even if I lose everything and everyone, I will resolve to remain fully engaged, one hundred percent unattached, and always searching to master meaning.
Blue collar work ethic. Indomitable will. Zero requirement that life cooperate.
It is my engineered comfort zone. An inner citadel for my peace. A simple promise that no matter what happens, I will always seek to learn, grow, love, and give as much as I can.
This is the safety deposit box of my faith. Not the market. Not the people. Not the body. Those are all on loan. The Unconditional Yes is the one asset nothing can take from me.
This is the state that makes freedom inevitable.
live freed,
Jordan
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