Buck The Trend

I was recently watching a dramatic production, which incorporated bits of media, and on the screen flashed the question, “What makes great people great?” The question was posed as an interview to random people across the city where the movie was filmed. People listed money, circumstances, drive, power, family, and even God for reasons great people become great. I have never considered this before, and having been exposed to it I figured I would stop and dwell for a moment on the issue. What makes great people great? It is my personal belief that it has nothing to do necessarily with circumstances such as money specifically, but perhaps with recognition, or even circumstances such as loss, or trauma. I feel as though each one of us as people have the ability to become ‘Great”, but that greatness is only recognized within our own perspective of great. I would view the farmer who is obedient to God’s call and shares God’s love with the one person he was supposed to in his lifetime as an example of greatness. But these stories are so often missed, and replaced with the larger stories of greatness, such as those people whom fill stadiums of people all to come and hear their message of hope. I want to propose a change in perspective. Not a lessening in anyway of the term great, but a holistic recognition of what it was created to represent. To be great should be labeled to things, people and ideas./ that are truly great not just things worthy of making the news. Perhaps our elevation of the term great has kept it in a place so unreachable that we as humans have worn out in the struggle to grab it and make it our own. Greatness can be found in obedience, and in the struggle to do just that. Someone who can be considered great is someone who is willing to try, willing to fail also, but more importantly than both he is willing to try again. I find solace in the quote “Count it a blessing that you are such a failure, your second chance might never have come.”

With greatness now being defined, I hope we can notice that we can all become great. In a world filled with apathy, laziness, and self-fulfillment, all it takes is one person, perhaps you to buck the trend, grab hold of the reigns of your life and starting trying again. It is like the stories your teachers told when you were in school about not wasting your potential. Try to be obedient to the will of God, to what he has for you, to sacrifice your own pleasure for the betterment of His kingdom. Greatness is achievable, but only at a cost, a small cost or large depending on how you view your own ‘freedom’ but I beg of you to grab hold of your greatness we so often ignore and run. And when you fail, count it a blessing that you get just another opportunity to prove your greatness. Run, race and strive for all that you can be. Greatness is staring you in the eye asking you to pursue it. Don’t let yourself down. Buck the Trend.

But what do you think makes great people great?