Goodness; the highest greatness
Someone said that goodness is the highest kind of greatness. It belongs to the dignity of human existence to aim at and to execute something great. None of us doesn’t want to associate with the great; the great will never lack company. Even many of us have this feeling that I want to be great, but how many of us cross from this want to actualize it? It is often lamented that the greatest ideas that could have transformed the world end up in the graves never to be implemented.
Our unfulfilled expectations drive us to be angry, bitter, aggressive and vindictive. The basest of us can usually be produced at the slightest provocation. And so the question remains how do we keep this path towards greatness? What is our lot here on earth so that as we leave it will be commented that a great man has left the scene.
And what is greatness?
Depending on what we define greatness, we can be great in our very different ways. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were great in their own ways may be as statesmen. Alexander the great earned the epithet great for conquering a vast empire, Martin Luther and Mother Teresa of Calcutta are regarded as great for very different reasons. What of Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai?
Properly put in the right context, greatness is spoken of depending on the degree someone’s life served the positive cause of humanity. Greatness again may be a highlight of the odds one had to beat to make appreciable strides. But beginning with the former, and going to the mother of all wisdom in the universe, the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and departing from evil that is understanding. The mother wisdom further stipulates that where is the man who would wish to live long and see good, let him depart from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it, let his tongue not speak evil nor his lips speak deceit for he has shown o you man what is good and what does the Lord require of you that you may act justly love mercy and walk humbly with your God. The eastern philosophy suggests that he who conquers others is strong but he who conquers self is mighty.
The greatest battle in life; to conquer self
My thesis here then is that he who conquers self is great. The greatest battle in life is the battle to conquer self. He who wins this wins the war. He is great he who subjugates self so that it can do that which he wants. The path to the higher lane is winning self and ordering it such that it can serve faithfully for the betterment of all. The path to greatness leads us to say yes here I have my right, it is being trampled upon, but what is good for all of us? The path to greatness enables us to draw the highest good possible in man. It makes us choose not to retaliate for doing so merely revenges but does not enhance our common good as human race. We walk the higher lane when we ignore evil and deliberately choose to be slaves of good.
Yes and we defeat the enemy hands down when he comes daggers drawn only to find us not ready to fight. We win when instead of fanning a quarrel we ignore and let it die. We subjugate the enemy when we let him have his way for the sake of peace.
The difference maker
My own experience is that truth is not what the world is after; in fact advocates of truth are few. Justice is foreign to people, good is a stranger but self and greed rule. The world has seen so much violence that it wants no more violent people. The difference maker will be that one who will deliberately choose to be different, believe that good can triumph over evil, order over disorder, and hope over apathy, dignity over ignominy involvement over alienation constructionists over destructionists. That justice will defeat injustice, and crookedness will be swallowed by uprightness. Have you a person whose mere presence solves problems? He seems to have this capacity to absorb desperate situations and turn them into hopeful ones. This person becomes an asset and not a liability to the world. He is a difference maker.
I am the Lord
Several times in Lev 19, God gives the dos and don’ts and finishes with “I am the Lord”. What this means is that God being our final reference we have the confidence of doing what is right and leaving it to him to do else. We can then fear him alone and do well to our fellow man as well as avoiding any paralyzing negativity in life and hope in his justice for no detail of life in the universe passes him. We will then be walking the higher lane; imagine of a world where everyone of us just goes for what is enough for self without being greedy enough to keep more than what he needs, no one deals falsely with another, lies to another, no cheating the neighbor, paying the wages to the workers promptly judging with justice without being unfair to the poor or favoring the mighty but judging our neighbor in righteousness. If everyone of us chooses not to slander our neighbor never hate our brother in the heart and rebuke our neighbor so that sin is not allowed to build in his life if we don’t take vengeance or bear a grudge against anyone but love others as self then this would be heaven on earth and then and only then would we be walking the higher lane. I intend to walk the higher lane.
Nurturing the good demon; starving the bad one
It will be hard to find a better way of expressing the good that can come out of man than living the good, doing the good and departing from the evil. Jesus did warn us that in the world there is no good, and so we ought to live as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves, and so we can be innocent in what is bad but steadfast in what is good. The good demon in us can be nurtured to produce a wholesome life. This also means starving the bad demon in us to death. It means developing the good habits while abandoning the bad ones. This way we become a great people.
