Many people believe that life is the place where you achieve victory or the time in which you should do this. They compete with each other; until all life has become a kind of competition among them and it must produce a winner or a loser. It turns to an endless conflict!! In the context of conflicts, values and principles are lost and the features of humanity are distorted!!Before this kind of people, Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian leader, stops to say, “Man’s pride when humiliating his fellow humans is a clueless mystery I can never solve”
If man will have to compete, he has to learn the art of self competition first and to perfect it, till he achieves a new victory each time over it. The self of man is the only entity that with training gains the ability to succeed and to be distinguished. While one’s regress and stagnation cause him to stumble. Someone says, “Our mission in life is not to compete with others but to compete with ourselves”. When people run on a race with their previous accomplishments, they are surely on their way to achieve more achievements. On the way; they gain great experiences and learn deep lessons in understanding the meaning of life as the great people did before. When Albert Einstein spoke about success, he said, “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value”. While Helen Keller says, “Surely, it gives dignity to life to believe that we are born into this world for noble ends, and that we have a higher destiny than can be accomplished within the narrow limits of this physical life.” Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest men in life thinks about life goals that, “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
The meaning of true greatness lies in the ability of giving and of helping others to be great, not in minimize them; so that one becomes the greatest of them. Thus, the great man is the one who has a vision and a frame of mind that help him get over himself and his needs to concentrate on the others: their needs and interests. His life turns into a flowing spring to those around him, so he motivates them to achieve progress. While they achieve higher ranks; they will carry him in their hearts and mind, so he will soar with them. The true measurement of greatness is the ability to realize the meaning of life and its real values that lie in satisfying the needs of others and their ability to achieve their mission toward humanity. Remember,
“A great person is the one who makes you feel you can be a great person too”
General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
