# 48: More Important Than Self—Greatness & Notes

As long as we are living for ourselves and company (family), our human nature will always flourish, no matter how good, generous, loving or religious we may be. The only way to weaken—let alone destroy—the power of the animal nature is to have something in life that is of greater value than ourselves. There are always small groups of people who in the past and present (Islamic radicals) have sacrificed their lives for what they believe is a great and noble cause. But to live for that great cause without the hope of experiencing an imminent martyr’s death is a different story. Death may come easy, but to live for something beyond self may be the most demanding life one could experience.

The question arises: What is out there that can become of greater importance than ourselves? I believe the greatest cause on earth is, through faith in Christ, to become a god (child of God) in human form; a god that is not concerned with self but with propagating the reason for our existence, which is to show and tell others the reason for the God-given, purposeful existence for humanity.

Though the above is much easier said than done, belief in one’s ability to achieve that goal must be believed without a shadow of a doubt. Any doubt would continue to keep self-interest of greater importance than that cause. Then the result, most likely, would be that life will continue on a religious though animalistic level.

Accurate knowledge of God can be dangerous in the hands of the clergy. They may use it to somehow propagate their own misguided religion. In the hands of atheists, knowledge can potentially allow them to look at God with some sort of beneficial logic.

We cannot find lasting contentment and completeness until we start to live for that which we were meant to be.

Human life is invisible, but it uses the physical being to accurately manifest and display itself.

The name of my God is love, although He comes in many forms and guises.

To love God means for one’s WHOLE LIFE to be geared around God’s plan for humanity.

When it comes to one’s own religion, we love to lie to ourselves. And what makes matters worse is that we wholeheartedly believe the lies. Could the religious rightly be classified as pathological liars?

Belief, holiness and love are measured by what one does and not by what one says. Without coinciding action, those necessary attributes don’t exist.

We humans don’t like to be called animals. But we are only hybrid animals with a little bit of intelligence and much cunning.

When someone claims to be a Christian but whose life is not actively heading in the direction of reproducing Christ’s perfection—Jesus is our only example of how a true Christian is to live—he or she is either a liar or is being deceived. In other words, the Christian life consists of no more and no less than actively desiring to duplicate, TO A GREATER DEGREE EVERY DAY, the perfect life of Jesus Christ. That must be every genuine Christian’s Holy Grail.

There is nothing in this world to live for that has true meaning and lasting value except to live under the control of Jesus Christ. As humans, we inherently were meant for greatness whether we admit it or not and, if we believe it or not. One might ask why. The answer is because we truly were created in the image of a great, great God. That creation must have taken millions of earth years and not just a twenty-four-hour period; the eternal God is never in a hurry. Since the vast majority of us never acquire much of any greatness, that feeling of inadequacy may be the main reason for much of the turmoil in the world. Human greatness most always desires to be richer, smarter, or more powerful than the masses and always, in some way, better than others. The greatness that we were specifically designed for was to experience the same greatness and humility of our Lord, although greatness and humility seem to be at odds with each other. That kind of greatness doesn’t desire to be better than others, but for all others to share in that same Godly greatness.

Here is another way of putting it: a truly great person will not be afraid of losing any of his/her greatness by washing/kissing (figuratively speaking) another's feet. What a wonderful world this would be if that type of greatness was prevalent, even if it only existed in the Christian community.