Day 29: The Desire to Be Great
'It's easy to think that being humble means we pretend we don't have any desires for greatness. According to Jesus, nothing could be further from the truth.'
Refreshing. Just how refreshing is that? I think the reason why we have such a misconception is because many of us have come to associate the desire for greatness with pride. Take a look and observe, how many times have you seen someone commending a fellow brother or sister(it could be you) only for the other party to blush and reply, 'oh no la, it's not that great...' Pretty much a textbook answer eh? Dont get me wrong here for I am not promoting pride, but the point im trying to make it that answers like this underscores the point made by Ps Holloday: that we've come to suppress desire for greatness. For what's worth I believe it's awesome in wanting to be great for God, to be effective in your ministry so lets be unapologetic about it!
Moving on, lets talk about the desire for all things great. Firstly, being human, and secondly, being a Singaporean, I want all areas of my life to be great if given a choice. I want my relationships with my family, friends, and girlfriend etc to be GreaAT, I want my studies to be great, i want circumstances to be great. I want to be the great agent of change. Kiasu some might say, but I believe it's great, because God desires nothing less for us as well. In fact, His definition of great is wayyyy greater and awesome than we can ever fathom :) Believe it or not, we are destined for greatness. Face it, we were created by God and for Him. It says in His word (Deut 28:13) that He will make us the head, and not the tail if we obey His commands. Jeremiah 29:11 says 'For I know what I have planned for you; I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you' So let's lay claim to it and be unapologetic about it!
Earlier on I said that if could have a choice, I would want everything in my life to be great. Well guess what, we have the choice. 'Anyone wanting to be the greatest must be the least- the servant of all!' And really, it boils down to these 2 simple choices:
1) Exalting yourself
OR
2) Humbling yourself
In your relationships, will you choose to exalt yourself or humble yourself? Are you going into every argument to win? If so, you are exalting yourself. Or are you going to be the first to apologise and make peace even though it may seem that you're lowering yourself? Humility develops and builds relationships. In fact, it makes for a great relationship because the 'I' doesn't take center stage anymore. I'll be the first to admit though that choosing to humble myself is not easy. I'm not talking about fake humility here, but real humility take places the highest value on relationships, not yourself. This involves actions, not mere words. Take that initiative and be the first to apologise, be proactive in helping someone out even if you feel he/she doesn't deserve your help or time.
How to do you relate to people today? How is your relationship with your friends and loved ones? Developing humility in your relationships is the foundation for greatness in other areas of your life because it teaches you how to relate to others and situations, so lets be excellent at that! (Lucas 2009)
Ref:
Lin, YL 2009, 'The desire to be great', Journal of Humility, vol 1, iss. 29. Available from:
P.s My thesis is due this coming Fri so pls keep me in prayer guys!
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