Touching zero

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been completely captivated by the BBC2 drama series ‘Heroes’. For those of you who don’t know (where have you been, by the way?) the show tells the story of a motley collection of people from all walks of life brought together by one secret that they all share. There’s the drug addict painter, the convict on the run, the cheerleader, the aspiring politician, the serial killer. There are children, mothers, fathers, orphans. All shades of humanity. The secret that they all share – a genetic variation that gives them each a super power – to fly, to walk through walls, to stop time, to regenerate, to see the future.

It’s all fiction, of course (there’s probably some law that says I have to say that), and yet it’s grabbed us and commands our attention. I’m having to record each one so my son can see them when he gets back from University (he’s a drama student, so he claims it’s required viewing on his course). So what is it that’s commanding our attention? It might be the great plot lines, and the way that the spider’s web is woven between the lead characters. It might be the new revelations that arrive each week. It might be the marvellous special effects. It might be the way it’s shot – even the titles are works of art.

Perhaps we each see ourselves in the characters – the father struggling to survive, the teenager fighting to be accepted, the geek who turns out to be a hero.

I think it’s more than that. I think the show speaks to somewhere deep inside each one of us. I think it calls to us and finds resonance with each of us at a level deep inside our core. I think we know, each of us, that we are more than our current experience. We know that we can achieve more, give more, live more. Each of us knows at some level that we have talents inside that will make a difference in people’s lives. Each of us knows somewhere inside that if we just let our brilliance truly shine, then we can change the world.

Each of us has a gift. Each of us has something unique, something stupendous, something that no-one else can do. Plato himself said “There is a place that you are to fill and no-one else can fill – something you are to do, which no-one else can do“. And when we withhold that gift, when we fail to let it out, when we fear what might happen if we recognise that talent – then the world is impoverished. The Universe misses out, because we don’t choose to be who we really are.

You don’t have to learn anything more, you don’t have to grow – you just have to start being who you truly are. You don’t need ‘fixing’ – you just need to recognise the life that’s inside you and let it out. Sure, you’ll grow and develop and learn more, so you can love more… and what you have right now is just what’s needed right now.

Some of us know what our gift is, and just need to find ways of using that gift more and more to love and serve others – and to see our own dreams come true in the process. Some of us have an inkling of what those gifts might be – and yet can’t really believe that it’s true.

Others of us haven’t yet realised that they might be gifted and talented. They haven’t worked out that they are truly unique – truly special. “Who, me?” – yes… YOU. You have something to bring to the world that no-one else can. Sometimes we simply need to work out what that gift is.

This is a strange and wonderful time in the world’s history – a time when “all creation stands on tiptoe just to see the sons of God come into their own” (St Paul, Romans 8v19). We’re starting to realise our birthright. We’re starting to realise who we are. We’re starting to work out exactly what’s possible when we really start to be ourselves and live up to our potential. And what happens when

So, yes, I’m excited by the future. I’m excited by what’s possible as we start to break out of the limitations that we place around ourselves. Are we evolving? I’d say we’re pretty incredible beings already. We just need to be who we are already – to be our true selves.

Until next time – be incredible!

Tim