Posts Tagged ‘Strength’

There is a place where you and I must reside. It is called the uncommon place. It is at times a lonely place, and is where few choose to reside.

However, there is a call being heralded throughout the world. There is a cry going out to the ends of the earth for those who will take up the challenge to rise up as leaders in their families, their schools, their universities, their workplaces, their churches, and throughout the entire fabric that makes up today’s society.

Who will take up the challenge? Who will count the cost? Who will pay the price? Who will stand against the tide of common opinion? Who will speak out? Who will be light? Who will be salt? Who will be a city set on a hill?

This is where those who stand up in response to this call will be and are transformed from the ordinary into the extraordinary. It may take decades to manifest, but if you persist it will surely appear.

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‘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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‘That which does not kill us makes us stronger.’ Friedrich Nietzsche

I once heard someone say that if you cannot find your name in the obituary column of the newspaper, it’s a great day.

As I read some of the writings of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor from 161 to 180AD, I was astonished at his obsession with death. But then, even as I have studied the writings of Solomon in the Bible, he often addressed the issue of death with a similar concentration.

But amidst this morbidity Friedrich Nietzsche briefly explains that although we think sometimes, because of the tough circumstances that we may be facing at the time, that death is knocking at our door – the fact remains that while ever we have life in our body, we are actually being presented with wonderful opportunities to be strengthened.

An easy life will only ever breed weaklings, whereas a life thwart with challenges to overcome will either destroy us outright or, if we choose, and we all have a choice, it will create within us a resilience to push through all the way to victory.

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