Podcast: Giving Yourself Permission to Move Forward

Giving yourself permission to step forward, breaking the “script” despite the feeling of fear is hard. 

It’s one of the most difficult things to do when you leave “The Message”, or any performance-based religious group. You’ve been so accustom to marching to the beat of what your church demands. You’ve been structured in the do’s and don’ts. You’ve been holding it all together, trying to not melt down emotionally. You don’t want to show emotional weakness (or any misstep) to your former faith community – because, those of us who’ve left know, it will be used against you.

Giving yourself permission is a very good thing to do. What do I mean? The Message is what is known as a “performance-based religion“. That is, you are perpetually struggling to attain a standard of perfection through performing an expected role. Every church has it’s own script and measuring stick for what ‘perfection’ is, so it will differ from church to church. But if you were part of a Message-Believing church – you were performing to meet a scripted standard.

Giving yourself permission to be “human” is hard. But it’s a necessary step in your progress.