Americans are obsessed with greatness. We celebrate it. We desire it. We expect it. If we aren’t achieving it, we’re failing.
And it’s not a bad thing. It can be healthy to encourage, even push kids to do and be their best — to tell them they can be anything they want with enough effort. And as children, we often start a lifelong celebration of elite athletes and our popular performers and presidents, seeing a future where we can expect to be just like them.
For me, and many others like me, expecting greatness makes me feel inadequate in a bunch of different areas of my life. And there’s this deep desire inside to do more, and have more, and be more than my peers. And when I don’t experience that, I feel like I’m failing. And when enough people feel that, the whole country starts to feel like it’s failing. I think that’s what might be happening to us right now.
Why are we obsessed with greatness? And why does something that seems like a good and healthy pursuit feel so bad?
It seems like greatness is something Jesus had a lot to say about. Like most people, I have a complicated relationship with religion and church. But after my conversation with Nicole Martin, I get the sense that we often define greatness all wrong.
Bible References: Matthew 18:1-5, Matthew 22:36-40, Luke 10:25-37, John 15:13
Author: Caleb, guest collaborator for He Gets Us
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