Are you Living from a Transcript or a Manuscript?
The difference between recording life and writing it
I was working as usual, and a thought hit me.
(These thoughts usually stop me from what I’m doing, and I am often compelled to document and process them.)
What is the difference between living from a Transcript and from a Manuscript?
As I pondered, I realised that one is a record and the other can break new records.
(Let that sink in.)
After you’ve graduated from the university, you are entitled to your official transcript.
The transcript is a record of your academic performance across the semesters during your studies.
It records your great, good, and sometimes bad grades.
It shows where you needed improvements, but you can now do nothing about it.
Beyond school, everyone has their Life Transcripts.
Transcripts record what happened in the past.
A transcript is finished, it is done, it cannot be improved upon.
On the other hand, a manuscript is fresh and open.
Manuscripts afford you plenty of opportunities to rewrite your history by writing and acting out what will and can happen in your future.
The more I pondered it, the more it dawned on me that this is a choice we face daily — to relieve the past or create the future.
We all have transcripts from our last adventures.
Yet, for some, it may contain failed voyages.
For others, they may have recorded some impressive successes.
Our transcripts tell the story of the expectations cut short and those we reached.
They show the goals that were achieved and the ones unachieved.
They contain the receipts of the quests that succeeded and the ones that didn’t.
They reveal the relationships that flourished and ones that left us with a broken heart.
Looking at your transcript, you’ll see all the times you almost made it but didn't quite get there and times when you felt on top of the world.
The transcript becomes a record of who we were — BUT it should not be a prediction of who we can become.
The problem is we spend way too much time reading our transcripts like they're some type of life manual; the document that determines what we can and cannot do.
We find ourselves flipping through those pages of success or disappointment and arrive at the conclusion that all we're capable of.
We look at our track records and decide that's our ceiling.
But in all honesty, Transcripts are just documentation, not prophecy.
Jesus’s Transcript read — Carpenter. Commoner. Son of Joseph and Mary.
One day, He picked up His manuscript and read his prophecy:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
And all spoke well of him and marvelled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”1
In that instance, Jesus defined his destiny.
Transcripts are data, not a destination.
Thank God for the successes they contain, but they are still the record of what happened when you had less experience, less wisdom, and less understanding of what you were truly capable of.
Wake up and tell yourself: “My future is waiting to be read; therefore, it is still in writing as it keeps unfolding.”
Right now, this very moment, your manuscript is open.
Look closely at it; the pages are still blank.
Interestingly, the pen is in your hand, and you get to decide what goes on that page.
You are at liberty to dream above your previous success.
Graduating with a first-class GPA is good, but you can become the biggest employer of labour in your country.
You can find the cure to the deadlines of diseases.
You can invent a new mobile communication technology with the least medical and social side effects.
You are at liberty to look beyond your past successes, failures, celebrations, disappointments and supermoments and previous limitations — that past shouldn’t hold you hostage.
As you write your manuscript, aim for each new chapter to be the kind that inspires the next generation yet unknown.
My Final Charge:
Please note that your manuscript doesn't have to ignore your transcript.
The best manuscripts take elements from the past and transform them into something powerful.
So stop crying over finished transcripts and start living your open-ended manuscripts.
The next chapter is waiting, the page is blank, and the pen is in your hand.
What are you going to write?
—DrAzu
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Luke 4:14-22