Truly great people have appropriate expectations for the rest of us. Darwin did not expect every amateur who assisted his inquiry to dedicate his or her life to science. Socrates did not expect every conversation partner to drop his occupation and become a full-time philosopher. Jesus did not expect all of his followers to commit to the high standard for apostles of the kingdom of God. John Muir was a mountaineer, but he did not expect that of everyone, though he did want everyone to taste wilderness glory. Bach wrote music for beginners. Schweitzer and Addams helped others pursue the lives of their own choosing. Pitirim Sorokin did not expect everyone to be a creative genius of altruistic love.
Sorokin believed that if ordinary people increase their level of altruism by 50%, that will be enough, given the necessary leadership, to transform our world. He gave the example of American good neighbors from the mid-20th century; they were generally persons of faith who cared for neighbors in need and volunteered with groups to serve the greater good.
Part of the difference between culture-heroes and the rest of us has to do with the fact that the world-historical greats had multiple gifts at high levels. I believe that everyone is gifted—everyone has at least one gift—but that gift might not be enough to support a world-class contribution to civilization.
But aside from differences in giftedness, there is another difference that is commonly overlooked. People are called to different levels of dedication. Whether we choose the highest standards of conduct or something more modest, we all have the same destiny. Given a vision of that destiny, the assurance would dawn that, no matter how great the transformation to be accomplished, attainment is not in doubt; we simply need to keep pace with the program, making and carrying out the daily decisions, following divine guidance. Our destiny is to be a full, mature, unified, complete person. Jesus invites us all: “Be you perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
The quest for perfection gets a bad reputation because people confuse it with perfectionism, which is narrow, compulsive, and counterproductive. Perfectionism obsesses about secondary things, while the quest for perfection goes for primary things—relationships and supreme values. But even those who choose the path of the hero need a balanced and sustainable heroism. Whether we choose to live up to the highest ideals or follow a more conventional social line, we all need to trust the natural and gradual process of growth toward our common destiny.
Natural living does not try to accelerate growth artificially. Most of the time, growth is gradual, as agricultural metaphors indicate. The Chinese philosopher Mencius called for a mean between extremes and satirized misguided self-cultivation with a story of a farmer who wanted to help rice grow by pulling on the sprouts.
You must work at [rightness] and never let it out of your mind. At the same time, while you must never let it out of your mind, you must not forcibly help it grow either. You must not be like the man from Sung. There was a man from Sung who pulled at his rice plants because he was worried about their failure to grow. Having done so, he went on his way home, not realizing what he had done. “I am worn out today,” said he to his family. “I have been helping the rice plants to grow.” His son rushed out to take a look and there the plants were, all shrivelled up. There are few in the world who can resist the urge to help their rice plants grow. There are some who leave the plants unattended, thinking that nothing they can do will be of any use. They are the people who do not even bother to weed. There are others who help the plants grow. They are the people who pull at them. Not only do they fail to help them but they do the plants positive harm. (Mencius [trans. D.C. Lau, Penguin 1970] 2B2)
To weed means uprooting a bad habit; and it means continuing to make course corrections as we go. To pull on the plants means compulsively examining our failures and weaknesses; it means trying artificially to build character through a regime of behavioral self-control. Pulling on the plants is so focused on self as to miss the faith, trust, patience, and love that nourish genuine character growth.
If we choose more conventional social norms rather than sustainable heroism, we still need to keep growing; we cannot cease efforts to grow and just coast and hold on to a certain level of attainment. We either go forward or backward; and the next segment of either path may require a steep climb.
How do you combine wholeheartedness in becoming like God with a relaxed and peaceful trust in the pace of your growth?
The 1940 photo of Polish tobacco growers in Connecticut comes from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Jack_Delano%2C_Tobacco_famers_near_Windsor_Locks%2C_Conn.%2C_1940.jpg/88px-Jack_Delano%2C_Tobacco_famers_near_Windsor_Locks%2C_Conn.%2C_1940.jpg
In 1981 while in the process of renewing my Christian faith, I had obtained a collection of New Testaments tapes. One morning while listening to these tapes, I heard the narrator read: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Immediately I was stopped dead in my tracks. I could not believe what I just heard. I opened up a Bible, and turned to Matthew, Chapter 5, 48th verse. There it was plain as day: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I don’t know if I had ever heard or read that verse before. In any case, it took on a new meaning and value for me and galvanized my soul. I immediately began to ask myself, “How can I obey that command?” It was a puzzle of puzzles.
I talked to all of my new associates at that time, and they gave various interpretations of the verse, but the answer to the question of how to achieve that supreme state was not forthcoming. And now Professor Wattles raises it again. It has been over 40 years between these two events. In looking back over those years, I now have an opportunity to express my take on how we become mature, unified and complete. In short, how do we become Godlike in this life?
The possibility of becoming Godlike in this life is the one gift that we are given which can not be handicapped by anyone other than ourselves. So the first step in beginning this supreme journey is to make it a supreme goal. Since it is a supreme goal, it requires a supreme effort- wholeheartedness. The next step is exercise faith that it can be done. So if we combine our supreme desire with the exercise of supreme faith, we will have a relaxed and peaceful trust in our journey to becoming all that we can in this life. Since the only contribution that we have to make towards this growth of becoming Godlike is our supreme desire, and our faith, there exists no needs to be distrustful or anxious about our growth.
God uses the raw material of our environment, physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual to stimulate our decisions in the direction of Godlikeness. When we respond positively to these stimuli, these stimuli serve to deepen our trust, increase our faith and fan the fires of our hope into a raging fire of inexpressible longing for God. God responds by making us Godlike.
Growth is unconscious, but we can get an idea whether we are moving in the right direction by the increase in the difficulty of the moral and spiritual stimuli that we are called upon to respond. Tranquility of mind and stability of spirit depend upon embracing the truth wholeheartedly that all things work together for good for those who love God and do his will. And when we start that steep climb of growth signaled by the increase difficulty of moral and spiritual decisions, we should rest securely in the knowledge, that his grace is sufficient for the climb.
Dr. Perry
In 1981 while in the process of renewing my Christian faith, I had obtained a collection of New Testaments tapes. One morning while listening to these tapes, I heard the narrator read: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Immediately I was stopped dead in my tracks. I could not believe what I just heard. I opened up a Bible, and turned to Matthew, Chapter 5, 48th verse. There it was plain as day: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I don’t know if I had ever heard or read that verse before. In any case, it took on a new meaning and value for me and galvanized my soul. I immediately began to ask myself, “How can I obey that command?” It was a puzzle of puzzles.
I talked to all of my new associates at that time, and they gave various interpretations of the verse, but the answer to the question of how to achieve that supreme state was not forthcoming. And now Professor Wattles raises it again. It has been over 40 years between these two events. In looking back over those years, I now have an opportunity to express my take on how we become mature, unified and complete. In short, how do we become Godlike in this life?
The possibility of becoming Godlike in this life is the one gift that we are given which can not be handicapped by anyone other than ourselves. So the first step in beginning this supreme journey is to make it a supreme goal. Since it is a supreme goal, it requires a supreme effort- wholeheartedness. The next step is exercise faith that it can be done. So if we combine our supreme desire with the exercise of supreme faith, we will have a relaxed and peaceful trust in our journey to becoming all that we can in this life. Since the only contribution that we have to make towards this growth of becoming Godlike is our supreme desire, and our faith, there exists no needs to be distrustful or anxious about our growth.
God uses the raw material of our environment, physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual to stimulate our decisions in the direction of Godlikeness. When we respond positively to these stimuli, these stimuli serve to deepen our trust, increase our faith and fan the fires of our hope into a raging fire of inexpressible longing for God. God responds by making us Godlike.
Growth is unconscious, but we can get an idea whether we are moving in the right direction by the increase in the difficulty of the moral and spiritual stimuli that we are called upon to respond. Tranquility of mind and stability of spirit depend upon embracing the truth wholeheartedly that all things work together for good for those who love God and do his will. And when we start that steep climb of growth signaled by the increase difficulty of moral and spiritual decisions, we should rest securely in the knowledge, that his grace is sufficient for the climb.
Dr. Perry
In 1981 while in the process of renewing my Christian faith, I had obtained a collection of New Testaments tapes. One morning while listening to these tapes, I heard the narrator read: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Immediately I was stopped dead in my tracks. I could not believe what I just heard. I opened up a Bible, and turned to Matthew, Chapter 5, 48th verse. There it was plain as day: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I don’t know if I had ever heard or read that verse before. In any case, it took on a new meaning and value for me and galvanized my soul. I immediately began to ask myself, “How can I obey that command?” It was a puzzle of puzzles.
I talked to all of my new associates at that time, and they gave various interpretations of the verse, but the answer to the question of how to achieve that supreme state was not forthcoming. And now Professor Wattles raises it again. It has been over 40 years between these two events. In looking back over those years, I now have an opportunity to express my take on how we become mature, unified and complete. In short, how do we become Godlike in this life?
The possibility of becoming Godlike in this life is the one gift that we are given which can not be handicapped by anyone other than ourselves. So the first step in beginning this supreme journey is to make it a supreme goal. Since it is a supreme goal, it requires a supreme effort- wholeheartedness. The next step is exercise faith that it can be done. So if we combine our supreme desire with the exercise of supreme faith, we will have a relaxed and peaceful trust in our journey to becoming all that we can in this life. Since the only contribution that we have to make towards this growth of becoming Godlike is our supreme desire, and our faith, there exists no needs to be distrustful or anxious about our growth.
God uses the raw material of our environment, physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual to stimulate our decisions in the direction of Godlikeness. When we respond positively to these stimuli, these stimuli serve to deepen our trust, increase our faith and fan the fires of our hope into a raging fire of inexpressible longing for God. God responds by making us Godlike.
Growth is unconscious, but we can get an idea whether we are moving in the right direction by the increase in the difficulty of the moral and spiritual stimuli that we are called upon to respond. Tranquility of mind and stability of spirit depend upon embracing the truth wholeheartedly that all things work together for good for those who love God and do his will. And when we start that steep climb of growth signaled by the increase difficulty of moral and spiritual decisions, we should rest securely in the knowledge, that his grace is sufficient for the climb.
Dr. Perry
In 1981 while in the process of renewing my Christian faith, I had obtained a collection of New Testaments tapes. One morning while listening to these tapes, I heard the narrator read: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Immediately I was stopped dead in my tracks. I could not believe what I just heard. I opened up a Bible, and turned to Matthew, Chapter 5, 48th verse. There it was plain as day: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I don’t know if I had ever heard or read that verse before. In any case, it took on a new meaning and value for me and galvanized my soul. I immediately began to ask myself, “How can I obey that command?” It was a puzzle of puzzles.
I talked to all of my new associates at that time, and they gave various interpretations of the verse, but the answer to the question of how to achieve that supreme state was not forthcoming. And now Professor Wattles raises it again. It has been over 40 years between these two events. In looking back over those years, I now have an opportunity to express my take on how we become mature, unified and complete. In short, how do we become Godlike in this life?
The possibility of becoming Godlike in this life is the one gift that we are given which can not be handicapped by anyone other than ourselves. So the first step in beginning this supreme journey is to make it a supreme goal. Since it is a supreme goal, it requires a supreme effort- wholeheartedness. The next step is exercise faith that it can be done. So if we combine our supreme desire with the exercise of supreme faith, we will have a relaxed and peaceful trust in our journey to becoming all that we can in this life. Since the only contribution that we have to make towards this growth of becoming Godlike is our supreme desire, and our faith, there exists no needs to be distrustful or anxious about our growth.
God uses the raw material of our environment, physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual to stimulate our decisions in the direction of Godlikeness. When we respond positively to these stimuli, these stimuli serve to deepen our trust, increase our faith and fan the fires of our hope into a raging fire of inexpressible longing for God. God responds by making us Godlike.
Growth is unconscious, but we can get an idea whether we are moving in the right direction by the increase in the difficulty of the moral and spiritual stimuli that we are called upon to respond. Tranquility of mind and stability of spirit depend upon embracing the truth wholeheartedly that all things work together for good for those who love God and do his will. And when we start that steep climb of growth signaled by the increase difficulty of moral and spiritual decisions, we should rest securely in the knowledge, that his grace is sufficient for the climb.
Dr. Perry
God’s invitation-command: “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect” brings with it a sense of assurance that it is possible to attain perfection. It is humbling and gratifying. But it is also invigorating and exciting. It invites one to act and to embark on a long and challenging journey. If I have my facts straight, that perfection and perfectionism are not the same as Jeff clearly explains in his introductory passage, then I know that perfection of which is spoken here has a different quality. There are no shortcuts to attain this kind of perfection. The secret of attainment lies in these gradual and steady steps. Wholehearted desire to do God’s will combined with man’s acts and divine guidance are the main ingredients for walking this path. At the same time, to me another half of the picture consists in a wholehearted trust in the truth that this is a partnership between us and God; and that this plan will ultimately guide us into perfection.
I often know when I have fallen off track. This happens when I am overcommitted, fatigued, cranky or not genuinely happy. In these instances something physical, mental, spiritual or some combination of these may be out of balance. When I give due attention to each of these aspects of my being I find it easy to be relaxed and to constantly renew my trust in the effectiveness of the path to perfection. I find myself closer to the source and destination of perfection.
Beloved Mahtab, this intelligent comment displays your characteristic spiritual insight. Your interpretation and comment nicely fills out what I managed to say. I would add one other thing: when you are living at your best (as I describe it, walking in beauty, living the truth, participating in goodness), then you are walking with perfection, and your path is the path of perfection and to perfection. There is a human level of being perfect, and the key to that is precisely this wholehearted desire to do the Father’s will. Thank you for being such a fine partner in the Way.
God’s invitation-command: “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect” brings with it a sense of assurance that it is possible to attain perfection. It is humbling and gratifying. But it is also invigorating and exciting. It invites one to act and to embark on a long and challenging journey. If I have my facts straight, that perfection and perfectionism are not the same as Jeff clearly explains in his introductory passage, then I know that perfection of which is spoken here has a different quality. There are no shortcuts to attain this kind of perfection. The secret of attainment lies in these gradual and steady steps. Wholehearted desire to do God’s will combined with man’s acts and divine guidance are the main ingredients for walking this path. At the same time, to me another half of the picture consists in a wholehearted trust in the truth that this is a partnership between us and God; and that this plan will ultimately guide us into perfection.
I often know when I have fallen off track. This happens when I am overcommitted, fatigued, cranky or not genuinely happy. In these instances something physical, mental, spiritual or some combination of these may be out of balance. When I give due attention to each of these aspects of my being I find it easy to be relaxed and to constantly renew my trust in the effectiveness of the path to perfection. I find myself closer to the source and destination of perfection.
Beloved Mahtab, this intelligent comment displays your characteristic spiritual insight. Your interpretation and comment nicely fills out what I managed to say. I would add one other thing: when you are living at your best (as I describe it, walking in beauty, living the truth, participating in goodness), then you are walking with perfection, and your path is the path of perfection and to perfection. There is a human level of being perfect, and the key to that is precisely this wholehearted desire to do the Father’s will. Thank you for being such a fine partner in the Way.
Jeff was asking: How do you combine wholeheartedness in becoming like God with a relaxed and peaceful trust in the pace of your growth?
For me, it’s situational and context-related. I believe that we unwittingly try to distinguish between these 2 extremes and try to see which one is more important/ natural / feasible in the circumstances, shifting the slider accordingly.
Michael, this is a wise answer. We do in fact have an intuitive sense of extremes and an intuitive sense of which emphasis the situation calls for. Bravo!!
Jeff was asking: How do you combine wholeheartedness in becoming like God with a relaxed and peaceful trust in the pace of your growth?
For me, it’s situational and context-related. I believe that we unwittingly try to distinguish between these 2 extremes and try to see which one is more important/ natural / feasible in the circumstances, shifting the slider accordingly.
Michael, this is a wise answer. We do in fact have an intuitive sense of extremes and an intuitive sense of which emphasis the situation calls for. Bravo!!