Good To GreatНамуна

Pay Attention

Once an argument broke out among  the disciples of Jesus. It was about  who is the greatest among them. Since they could not come to a conclusion (quite  obvious!) they came to Jesus for a solution. At that time, Jesus was surrounded by many people who had come to listen to Him, and there were children too. Jesus then called a  child to Him, and made the child stand in the midst  of all these people and the disciples, and said: “Unless you become like this child, you will not be the greatest”. Now that’s a radical thought!

I believe, Jesus laid down an amazing principle there, for unlearning our pride. He introduced a relation between a child and being great. Children are simple characters. They are vulnerable therefore teachable. They don't have false pretences, so they are open to learning. They don't have any prejudices and so they are willing to learn and learn from anyone. That attitude definitely leads to growth. Jesus is not suggesting us to become childish, which would be ridiculous, instead, He is asking us to be childlike; open, vulnerable, willing and honest.

Everything around us has something to offer. Life has a knack of teaching us even through simple and trivial incidents and circumstances. Everyone around us has some value to add to our lives, be it positive or negative. We need to first accept and believe one important truth, that is “EVERYONE IN THIS WORLD IS UNIQUE”. There is no other person like you in this entire world.

Psychologists divide people generally into two or four categories, based on their personality or temperamental traits. People are either extroverts or introverts. They are either Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Melancholic, or Choleric. But even psychologists agree that no two persons can have the same personality, they can have similar personalities but not the same. The truth is, most of our personality traits overlap into two or more other personality types. One particular trait can be dominant, but we also have other traits mixed in us. That makes each one different from others. We are unique. Even though two people can fall into the Melancholic type, they are still very much unique from each other. They might think, behave or talk similarly, but they are not the same. They are not clones but are unique.

You are a unique person, there is no one like you in the entire world. You have a special purpose for your life. Your existence has a definite objective. Your contribution to this world is distinctive, no one can give what you can offer. It’s the same with everyone in this world. Everyone can teach something, they can add value to our lives. Once we understand this truth, learning becomes easier and joyful for us. In fact it turns into a pleasure.

False Humility and True Meekness

No matter how good we think we are, we all have our own weaknesses. We might possess great talents, skills and strengths but there is no person without a weakness.  We generally try to cover our weak areas with our strong areas. We don’t want people to point that out to us and we like to keep it under wraps. We want people to look at our greatness and talk about it than to look at our flaws. Hence, we work harder and harder to make our strengths stronger and smarter, and in the process, we develop ‘pride’ in ourselves. That’s when we cease to grow.

What each of us need to learn is, we are not as smart as we think we are, and there is always something we can learn to grow. In fact those who never stop learning are the ones who never stop growing. I am not suggesting we develop false humility. That’s absurd and actually irritating. It’s a foxy and hypocritical attitude. We need to be secure in our knowledge, be confident of our talents and skills, but at the same time we need to recognize the truth that everyone can contribute something valuable to our lives. That is true meekness, in other words, it is being teachable.