I am in middle of reading a book about storytelling. One of the stories in the book is about Joel Olsten, a pastor at a mega church. He was the cameraman at his father church, recording his father’s sermons. He saw himself as an introvert and told himself that he could not give a public speech. At some point, after he took over the position of pastor (his father passed away), he started to change his self-talk. Instead of I can't, he’d say I can. Instead of saying it’s impossible, he’d tell himself that I'm possible.
We each tell ourselves stories. We say I can't keep kosher and then back it up with evidence, e.g. I didn't grow up religious, how can I keep kosher? I can't observe Shabbat, I need to keep myself informed about what is going on in the world, check my email, text my friends and go for a drive.
One of the stories I tell myself is that I cannot get into prayer properly. Real prayer is taking the time to focus and connect with Hashem. There is the text of the prayerbook, and I don't see how it reflects my connection with Hashem. Do I really need to tell Hashem that He is great, glorious, magnificent, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient?
In this week’s Torah portion, the 12 scouts go to explore the land of Israel. Their job was to see what the land is and to devise a plan how to conquer it using the natural methods of war.
When they came back to the Jewish people, they (10 of them) decided it would be impossible to conquer the land and proceeded to list several reasons why.
The Jewish people sadly accepted their negative self-talk, and as a result they spent the next 39 years wandering in the Sinai Desert.
Imagine for a moment if you said I can. I can buy out my competitor. I can do the exercise I need to do to be healthy. I can keep kosher and Shabbat. I can...
I might not do it perfectly at first and may mess up a few times, but I can get there.
Imagine how the trajectory of the Jewish people would have been different if they decided that they can conquer the land.
I am not sure who said it, but the saying goes "if you say you can or you can't, you are correct".
Have a good Shabbos, you can celebrate it :),
Rabbi Kushi Schusterman