Everyone has within them gifts, talents, abilities, etc., that are bestowed upon them or placed into them. Sometimes these “run in the family” such as musical or athletic abilities. At other times people exhibit abilities that strikingly set them apart from the biological and/or social environment that they were born into. I would venture to say that a significant number of people live their entire lives unaware of the full wealth of abilities, gifts, and talents they posses. This is tragic in and of itself because it strongly suggests that most people live a life where they severely underachieve and at most drift in a sea of mediocrity--let alone not even come close to scratching the surface in regards to reaching potential or fulfilling their destinies. Again, in such an instance, it’s not simply a case of people not applying themselves, but these people being oblivious of their potential and/or destiny. Yes, I believe in destinies. We can look down the many roads of history and witness countless examples of men and women who, though they may not have spent much time on Earth and were often taken away from us by violent means, lived a life where they touched and changed the lives of others. Their very lives were just a ripple that grew into a tsunami force tidal wave of social, political, religious, and even economic change. If the lives of people like Mohandas Gandhi, Steven Biko, Frederick Douglas, Thomas Edison, Jesus Christ, The Prophet Moses, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bob Marley, Bill Gates, Sun Tzu, Confucius, Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, and Muhammad Ali don’t convince you that the very concepts of meeting potential and fulfilling destiny is real, then I wonder how you truly view the world and the value of life.
I do also believe (with some of the aforementioned to serve as examples) that there is a divine nature at times at work in the lives of such people. Because of this, destiny and potential can often be a burden in many ways--but mainly two; the expectations of others, which in essence is external and also, the expectations we must put upon ourselves, which is of course totally intrinsic. The reason that I say that we must put these expectations on ourselves is that there comes a time (or many times) where we stand alone and the only person in our corner is the one we see in the mirror. Through life’s journey, in terms to fulfilling potential, many times people are alone and remain as such when they first discover who/what they are purposed to be. We all know the story about how a great individual had to initially deal with years of rejection, laughter, doubt, ridicule, ostracizing, and even hatred and jealousy of those who they grew up or lived around before their destiny and potential developed to a point where it could no longer be denied. In the religions of Judaism and Christianity, such themes permeate its list of inspirational characters with people like Joseph versus his twelve brothers, Moses versus the enslaved and then newly freed nation of Israel (not to mention the resistance by the Egyptian government), King David versus his family, and even Jesus Christ Himself had to face such doubts and opposition from His family and hometown in regards to Who/What He actually was. One can also notice this being played out in the historical account of the life of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad when he initially went around preaching his monotheistic religious message. Yes, there are times that we are the sole encouragers and motivators in our lives. It’s one thing to push yourself when you fail or are in new territory, but it’s quite another to convince yourself to move forward when you encounter the bitter winds of opposition from the ridicule, doubt, resentment, and other forms of discouragement from others. It’s like adding a heavier burden to an already uphill climb.
But even with all this said, in the end, the onus of success and failure is upon us. I would go even further to say that even those of us that have seemingly reached success or fulfilled our potential have actually more that we should expect of ourselves. You see, we who are gifted, who often times do well in certain areas with minimal effort (because we have been fortunate enough to discover where our strengths are) where others have to study hard, practice much, or in some way push themselves to a significant degree, can become victims of such abilities. It is human nature to relax or ease up a bit in areas that the past has shown are not places that demand much effort from us to do well. We tend to coast when we can--whether or not taking such a course is a prudent one. This may seem to some extent allowable and even deserved. But like so many habits we pick up in life, such actions and mental approaches tend to permeate into other areas of life or can even heavily influence our total outlook. Put simply, most of us, even the seemingly successful tend to sell ourselves short in this regard. We know when we are cruising along. We know when we have everyone else fooled into thinking we put in so much time and effort when we are really far behind what we could do. We know when we do just enough to barely earn an “A”, when in reality we could totally obliterate the grading curve. Hence, success can lull us into a mode where we no longer push ourselves and thus redefine our limits and further continue to discover what had been placed upon and put into us. This is a rather dangerous snare that we can walk into if we are not careful. We cannot and should not ever gauge success by the opinions, standards, and acceptance of others. Too many times success defined by others often falls far from what we are actually able to achieve when we are the ones challenging ourselves. Only we know when we sleep and night or look in the mirror whether or not we gave it our all and pushed ourselves beyond the temporary limits of past experiences and the expectations of others.
Why is this so vital? Well, let’s look at some of the individuals mentioned earlier. Imagine if some of them would have relaxed along the way and decided that halfway or even most of the way to the fulfillment of their destiny was sufficient enough. How many lives would have remained untouched and unchanged? How much more suffering would have existed? How much longer would many have remained in the dark (literally and figuratively) or in bondage of some sort? Imagine if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been satisfied just to be another African-American preacher or Harriet Tubman would have viewed her own escape to freedom as legitimate success. How much different would India have been if Mohandas Gandhi stopped pushing himself when he became a successful lawyer? Who would have inspired Dr Martin Luther King Jr. about the potency of non-violent civil disobedience then? What about Susan B. Anthony? How much longer would the Women’s Movement in America have taken to become what it is had she limited her activism to issues involving the abolition of slavery? These people and many more like them had to resist the inner temptations of relaxing or slowing their inner drives in order to maximize every gift, talent, and ability they had. Furthermore, these notable individuals teach us that what we have been blessed to be able to do can often times have nothing to do with us individually in terms on self gain. But rather, for the most part, they are there for us to use and be used for the betterment of humanity. In a sense, this thought itself refers back to one of the greatest statements shared by the Master Teacher, Jesus Christ, when He uttered, “For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required.” This leads me to believe that people with loads of potential should not be ones who are selfish. When you come up against times where you just want to be like everyone else when you know such a life is not suited for you, please abandon that thought. When you are discouraged and get tired of pushing yourself, know that you have been entrusted with greatness and that with time and effort, your potential will be realized. When you want to ease up a bit and scale down your definition of success to please others or avoid adversity, remember that many people here and now and possibly for generations to come are depending on you to break through your barriers. Please, don’t sell yourself short. We all need you.
