For just as the Father has life in himself… (John 5)
There is an episode in the movie "Proof" where the prim sister was explaining how a certain conditioner would give her hair life. Playing off the prim sister was of course the irascible sister who informed her that in fact hair is dead tissue and therefore no matter how amazing the conditioner, it was unlikely to give her hair life. The best any conditioner can do is put a good gloss on what is dead.
This sounds too obvious but one of the advantages of growing older is a growing clarity about my contingency. That is, I'm steadily coming to know who I am in relation to everything around me. Coming to recognize that the things that look secure probably aren't. Coming to know through trust-experiences that it's not me that gives, opens up, and sustains life for myself. Coming to see that on my own steam I am, at best, hair conditioner.
And the happy by-product here is the concomitant ability to see what things make for life and what things are merely gloss. Another name for this "by-product" is freedom.
Perhaps simply moving in this freedom is one of the best things we can offer because it can't help but point back to the One "who has life in himself".
