This quote sparks the fire that lies deep in my soul. At one part of your life or another you have felt that spark, you have seen the light in someone eyes when they first began to dream, when they first believed that they could achieve greatness; when they felt invincible in this world and knew that nothing could stop them, until something does. Something comes and steals that light, something comes and makes them jaded. "The world offers you comfort", comfort in food, money, fame, popularity, big houses, new clothes, the next best thing, but in that comfort, in all of that money, fame, popularity, in the middle of a packed room, you feel all alone and empty. You search for more, search for meaning, search for someone to save your life; yet you are left unfulfilled, jaded, and walk around like the world owes you something.
Why do we seek comfort? We seek comfort for many reasons, many of which come right to your mind, because who likes to struggle? Who wants to struggle? Who chooses struggling over greatness? When you look at the cross do you see greatness, or do you see a struggle? If you look close enough you can see that sometimes in our struggle we find greatness. Even Jesus knelt in the garden of Gethsemane asking his Father to take away the struggle (carrying the cross) if it was his will, yet God allowed this struggle to happen, this brutality to happen so that when we looked at the cross we didn't just see struggle, we SEE GREATNESS! We see a man who persevered through beating after beating, nail after nail, to illustrate not his greatness, but his love. More specifically his love for YOU.
Greatness is a struggle because we desire things of this world, we struggle because we wish to be great and we wish to be comfortable, but how do we become great while we're settled with being comfortable? We're comfortable with living in our own little bubble of getting up, getting the kids dressed and off to school, spilling your coffee on the way to work, working through lunch to make it back home before the kids get off the school bus, feed them a snack, get them to soccer practice, put dinner on the table, have a mediocre conversation about our day, get the kids bathed and in bed, sit down and breathe, brush teeth, lay down, sleep, do it all over again tomorrow. Comfort comes from routine, comfort comes from being free from pain or discomfort. While each of us have many things to do throughout the day we forget the simple things that turn our struggle into greatness. We forget the hello to our receptionist who is waiting to greet us in the morning, we forget the 'have a great day' to our barista as we snag our coffee and run out the door, we forget the 'I love you' to the people we care most about in this world because 'hey they already know right?'. We forget to have a conversation with our kids, or to call our parents just to say we're okay, we don't take time to reach out to those in need, to those who just need to feel they're loved. Greatness is a struggle because greatness comes not from our own strength and power, but from he who is great. We must rely on him to be our strength, and we must be his hands and feet. Greatness will test our faith, test our character, test what we believe and who we believe in. Greatness is getting knocked down, yet having the courage to wobble back up to our feet. Greatness is putting others before ourselves, it is simply doing what God has commanded us to do, love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
Pope Francis calls us 'to go to the outskirts, to the ones unwanted', yet Blessed Mother Teresa tells us to 'Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering, and the lonely right there where you are — in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see. Everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by society — completely forgotten, completely left alone'. So I challenge you to do both; go to the outskirts of your comfort zone to find your Calcutta because when you can become comfortable being uncomfortable greatness will find you!!! "You were made for greatness"
John 16:33: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world"
--Live Jesus--
