Our strength is built in adversity. In your weakness lies your greatest strength. There are many obstacles on the road to Greatness. Can you live without being accepted by people? People may not understand you. Instead of supporting your goals, some will attempt to put an end to your growth or make you feel isolated. By nature, we are most comfortable around those who are just like us. Anyone who would dare to deviate from the safe, familiar path is deemed strange, a rebel without a cause that forces others to look at themselves. But I dare you to be different. I dare you to not give in to the many voices without and within that will oppose your purpose for being. Eleanor Roosevelt once said that no one could make you feel inferior without your permission. You will never find the road to Greatness hanging around folk who are trying to go nowhere in a hurry.
Nothing can be more damaging to the human spirit than to get kicked when you are down. Yet, this will challenge your belief in yourself, and cause you to wonder: “How bad do I want it?” Know that only your true friends will be around to help keep a song in your heart. And, during the moments when your friends are not available, you must continue to sing that song and like King David, encourage yourself. The strength in your vision and God’s destiny for your life must prevail.
It is safer to notice what someone is doing to you, than to admit what you are doing to yourself. The outward challenges are sometimes easier to overcome than the inward struggles. Yet, the outward challenges and your relationship with others often manifest inward struggles. We lose ourselves in the struggle when we battle those things without and never recognize the things within. For example, how willing are you to forgive someone who has hurt or disappointed you? Forgiveness releases a person we feel is indebted to us. But more importantly, we release ourselves. Harboring unforgiveness causes our inner being to deteriorate. In our self-righteousness and need for vindication, we hold on to a breach of our trust by another. Any reminder of the experience reignites those hurt feelings and we relive the pain all over again. There are many people today denying their Greatness because they are living unhealed lives.
It is also important to remember that Greatness is not so much an arrival or destination point as it is a road we continuously travel. That is to say, you do not reach a pinnacle and sigh, “That’s enough.” I caution against becoming mired in the web of complacency. I am not satisfied with mediocrity while my destiny goes unfulfilled. Choosing the road to Greatness in this life causes you to give life your best and receive the best in return. This is a continued reciprocity, and for this you can never be satisfied. Yes, be content with the growth opportunity, but never be satisfied to remain where you are. Seek to grow wherever you are planted and ask God to help you gain patience, understanding, and reaffirmation of purpose.
"I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit." -- Dawna Markova
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