Consider the image of the mahout on the elephant. He is a small man on a large beast, directing it wherever he wants it to go.

The elephant is huge. The elephant is powerful. It could run and the man could fall off. It could shake him off and kill him. But it doesn’t. It lets the man on, and lets the man tell it where to go. It passively gives up its power. It lets him use its power for his own purposes, which may have no benefit for the elephant. All day long the elephant moves trees or clears brush. The elephant does not get to do elephant things. The elephant has been tamed.

Sometimes we are the elephant. We are unaware of how much of our power we give away. We’ve let others tell us how to do things. We’ve let others convince us that we need them.

How are you being directed? Who is leading you?
Is it a teacher, or a minister, or a boss?
Is it a spouse, or a friend, or a neighbor?

Or is it something harder to see? That mahout directs the elephant and the elephant can’t even see him. Sometimes what controls us is the same way.

Is it bad habits?
Is it cigarettes, or food, or alcohol?
Is it a family tradition that doesn’t serve you anymore? Maybe it never did, but you faked it. We all do.

You are more powerful than you could ever know.

I’m pretty sure the elephant wouldn’t ever imagine shaking off that mahout and walking into the jungle. I’m pretty sure that elephant thinks that he has to have that mahout. How will he ever get food? Where will he sleep? What will he do all day without that mahout?

We are the same way.
We can continue to be bystanders in our lives, or we can move on.

Sure, it is scary. But it is less scary than spending your whole life doing things the way someone else wants you to live it.