Want to be Great?
“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” – Jeremiah 12:5
I tend to think so highly of my faith, my great strength, my perseverance, relentless hope, then something goes poorly and I lose my everliving mind. And what I mean by something goes poorly is the wind blows, or I have to go back and fix a small detail in something I was working on, or somebody doesn’t live up to my expectations (because they’re just so, so impeccably high), and so on and so forth.
If I, however, were faced with real adversity, what would I do? Because the stuff that I tend to deal with on a day to day basis, in retrospect, is rather small and, in the end, oh so petty, yet I come unglued over the most absurd things. How could I be trusted to do something extraordinary, when I can’t handle the petty, insignificant stuff now?
We tend to think more highly of ourselves than we actually deserve, don’t we? Maybe it’s just me. But… how can I ever be trusted, how can I even trust myself, to do the extraordinary when, in the ordinary, I often feel like I’m getting by with the skin of my teeth? I can’t. I want to be great, an exceptional leader, an advocate for truth & possibility, run with the horses, do things that actually matter in the grand scheme, but man… I’ve got a lot of growing up to do.
As true and concrete as the law of gravity, greatness begins with being trustworthy in the here and now, in the small &, seemingly, insignificant daily duties with which we are faced. Want to lead a nation? Lead your family first. Want to be an exceptional artist? Practice to perfect your craft. Want to someday leave a legacy? Start building a meaningful future in the here and now.
It’s easy to trust God when things are going well, but how will we measure when the wind blows in an opposite direction than we anticipated? We are absolutely created for greatness, in whatever role, or roles, God places us, but first we must get a grip on gratitude & growth. Until then, we’ll remain right where we are, punching at the wind, waiting for a day that will never come because we chose not to blossom where we were planted. Want to someday be great? Be great now.