‘It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a God.’ Seneca

So in Seneca’s view there are two poignant points that equate to true greatness. So let’s look at them more closely.

1. The Frailty Of A Man

The longer I live the more I realize how fragile the human life really is. We can never tell when our time is up, or the number of years we have here on planet earth. When compared to the powers of nature’s force – such as wind, earthquake, rain, snow, or fire we are so puny, so insignificant in power to combat whatever mother earth decides to present to us.

For all man’s advancements in knowledge and technology we still reside within the mercies of the elements. We are but ants in an expansive planet that sits within the vastness of a far greater universe. Specks we are. Twinkling stars in a spatial arena that is beyond explanation. Our greatest strengths exhibited do not even register on the scale of weakness when compared to the rest of creation.

2. The Security Of A God

The Apostle Paul, one of the greatest apostles who ever lived, wrote that God said to him that God’s ’strength comes into its own in your weaknesses’.

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When I find myself involved in a one on one conversation with a friend or a colleague, I suddenly find myself throwing about my thoughts more easily. They seem to present themselves with a greater sense of order. And for some reason I see those thoughts just that much clearer when they have been translated into words.

It is at that point that I at times seem to be much wiser than I ever imagined. And from just one hour of interactive discussion I find that I have stumbled upon more than I would ever have unveiled if I had locked myself away for a day on my own in the company of one.

For with the assistance given through good counsel and stimulating conversation my affairs are suddenly surveyed with a greater clarity and a straightening resonance.

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‘All mankind is divided into three classes: those who are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.’ Benjamin Franklin

1. Those Who Are Immovable

There are those amongst us who are stuck. Stuck in tradition. Stuck in their ways. Stuck in comfort. Stuck in religious thought-sets. Stuck in bad habits. Stuck in mindsets. Stuck.

And there is a chance that as they live stuck they will die stuck. Immovable. Not even an atomic bomb will move them. In business, if you’re stuck, you won’t be in business for long. Immovable in life, in family life, in organizations, in education, in institutions, in politics, in anything and everything.

To be stuck is to be unstuck – destined for destruction. Immovable.

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I have in the first month of this year attended two funerals. One for a friend who was a few years older than myself, and who had lost a five year battle with cancer, and the other for a friend’s child who died full-term in the womb of his young mother. Both were sad events, but we were all comforted by the fact that we know that both now reside in heaven.

Apart from the services that were both amazingly beautiful ceremonies, I was moved by the richness of the friendships that were evident at both, along with the communication and support that surrounded each of the events.

Friendship is so important if we’re ever to live a rich life. Without true friends – those whom we can depend on in both the good and the not so good times – we are poor indeed.

Friends provide us the support we need. They gird us and they goad us. They draw out the best and encourage us to be better. They provide the strength in our weakness and the light in our darkness.

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‘Often the best way out is through.’

All of us at some time in our lives will feel hemmed in, surrounded, blocked, hindered, or delayed by life’s circumstances. This is not the time to run, nor to even stand still, resigned to the seeming fate or thought that this now is to be your lot in life.

We were never born to stagnate. We were never created to crumble. We were brought to planet earth to conquer and to overcome.

And so when your enemy surrounds you – that is the time  to take up arms and declare war. Wild animals know this, for a wild animal, when it is backed into a corner – this is when it is most vicious. For it knows that there is only one way out of their predicament and that is to go forward.

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