On Achieving Greatness

"Always give your best ... never be discouraged ... never be petty. Always remember, out of sufferings have emerged the strongest souls."

How often I used to come across such advise in all my readings. At least, it seemed often to me - too often. For a while, I accept it as being a good advice, yet to follow it is not just that easy.

Aiming and achieving greatness is just getting a hammer, but getting yourself pounded by that hammer. You should sacrifice and undergo sorrows and pains. You should carry your cross on your shoulders ... just like the square bamboos of Japan.

You might be wondering why I mentioned bamboos - and why the square bamboos of Japan? They were also round as ours are. They got the monocot leaves and grow tall, too. 

Chimonobambusa quadrangularis

The Japanese Square Bamboos are not just ordinary bamboos, but they were - once upon a time. Can you guess how they became square?

Well, they simply undergo some processes, transforming them into what they are now. During which they were still sprouts, they were being molded by putting four woods side by side, or cementing them squarely after applying some kind of acid solution.

During harvest time, all bamboos will be cut down for sale. The ordinary ones will be sold cheaply, and would be commonly used for fencing purposes. But the square ones would be so precious and would surely have devil-to-pay prices. They would be used as ornaments or pillars, and would be placed not in a corner, but in places where too many eyes would wander.  They could surely attract attentions the way they keep your mind wondering upon knowing that they exist.

Life, my dear friends, is just like those bamboos. We must undergo the transformation processes for us to be molded and fitted to what we want us to be. We should occasionally take some knocks to make us stronger enough to ruin the barriers towards greatness. We should feel the pain of the acidic problems  as it clings and burns our being, so that we could be squarely great in one way or another. We must be ready to accept criticisms, good or bad, to make us aware whether or not we are trudging the right path. We should also welcome and accept corrections to make us perfectly right. Finally we should trust God, for He alone, knows where we are heading to.  We should also inculcate in our minds that "God doesn't give trials beyond what we can bear. And if He does, He will provide a way out, so that we can stand up against it." (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Thus, greatness comes, not when all things go well for us. But greatness comes when we are really tested, when we take some knocks, some disappointments ... when sadness comes. Because only if we have been in the deepest valley can we ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

(Date Unknown)

Published in the Purview Section of the SJIT Collegian

Vol. XI No. 1, June - Oct 1995 issue