In the past few weeks I’ve had the ability to visit one of my favorite cities in the world, Chicago, on two separate occasions Ever since I was a child growing up outside of Chicago I loved the commotion and vibrance of the city streets, the infinite sights, sounds, smells, faces, and activities captivate me to this day. As I walk around in Chicago I feel a part of something bigger than myself, it is simply impossible to believe that my personal affairs are really that big of a deal amidst such a big place. No one is concerned about my job title, my salary, or my car…in the midst of the masses I simply become the guy standing wide-eyed staring out the train window who just so happens to be in your way to get off at the next stop. While in some ways crowds and masses of people (big cities) may reduce our self perceived individuality, they undoubtedly reinforce our undeniable humanity; we are all people living life together.
When I wander the city streets, I never feel like I become less of myself, or less of a person, I always feel like more of me than I do when left alone. When I’m around people, I’m humbled, I’m forced to live life on the ground level where there is no distinction or social stratification, there is simply life. There is no medium to gain political traction, there is no ladder to climb, there is just humanity. Despite our most grandiose views of our own importance, its amazing of how quickly the significance of self fades to nothing amidst the masses.
I don’t for a minute want to come across as if I am downplaying the importance of the individual, as I feel I have reiterated before, I am overwhelmed at the importance and attentiveness of God’s love for us and the value he places on us as individuals (see: People Shaped Spaces ), what I am saying is that it’s important to not let your individual specialness eclipse the fact that others have an equally significant specialness. As with everything so much of life is about balance, the balance between the value of self without becoming self absorbed and also the balance of acknowledging the importance of others without becoming self deprecating…neither compromising who we are for the sake of others, nor compromising the importance of others for the sake of ourselves.
GK Chesterton wrote that the “…it became evident that if a man would make his world large, he must make himself small. Even haughty visions, the tall cities, the toppling pinnacles are creations of humility. Giants that tread down forests like grass are the creations of humility. Towers that vanish upward above the loneliest star are creations of humility. For towers are not tall unless we look up at them, giants are not giants unless they are larger than we. All this gigantesque imagination, which is, perhaps the mightiest of the pleasures of man, is at bottom entirely humble. It is impossible, without humility, to enjoy anything - -even pride.”
Humility expands the way we look at the world and the way we look at each other, it opens our eyes to the bigness and the realness of the world around us. When we are arrogant, we become giants in our own minds, bigger than the mountains, the towers, and the world itself. We reduce the world around us to mere morsels, we live life aloft and high perches, seldom doing anything of charity or purpose. We become stagnant except for when our pity for the lowly world around us has reached a state of such disrepair that our arrogance (not love) motivates us to act, and for those of you who have ever been helped out of pity or pride instead of charity or love you know all too well how distinct a difference love-motivated action makes, and how ineffective pride-motivated action is.
By becoming a smaller part of our own realities our eyes are opened to the world and the possibilities of what it could be. If you consider life mathematically the equation would look something like this:
Me + Everything Else in the world = Reality (aka Life, aka Your World View)
Since Reality (aka Life) is in fact constant, this means that the more of Self (Me) that I have, the less room for everything else there is. Like a buffet, you can eat whatever you like from the vast selection, however if you fill up only on shrimp cocktail, you’ll have a vastly different experience than you might if you were to sample the selection of all the flavors. No matter what you chose you may end up full, but the quality of your experience will probably be vastly impacted by the choices you make.
Humility makes room for more by becoming less. The best part is by being less selfish, we don’t become less of ourselves. The less of me I have, the more room for Christ I have made, and he is willing to fill the space no matter how big I make it.
By understanding our true place in this life we are able to embrace the bigness of the world around us. By understanding we are small in the grand scheme of things we open our eyes and our hearts to a big world. Through embracing humility, the expanses of life are opened to us and our ability to enjoy and soak in all that this beautiful life has to offer expand all the more.
Taking a smaller role in my own world view,
CP
http://chrispanoff.blogspot.com/
When I wander the city streets, I never feel like I become less of myself, or less of a person, I always feel like more of me than I do when left alone. When I’m around people, I’m humbled, I’m forced to live life on the ground level where there is no distinction or social stratification, there is simply life. There is no medium to gain political traction, there is no ladder to climb, there is just humanity. Despite our most grandiose views of our own importance, its amazing of how quickly the significance of self fades to nothing amidst the masses.
I don’t for a minute want to come across as if I am downplaying the importance of the individual, as I feel I have reiterated before, I am overwhelmed at the importance and attentiveness of God’s love for us and the value he places on us as individuals (see: People Shaped Spaces ), what I am saying is that it’s important to not let your individual specialness eclipse the fact that others have an equally significant specialness. As with everything so much of life is about balance, the balance between the value of self without becoming self absorbed and also the balance of acknowledging the importance of others without becoming self deprecating…neither compromising who we are for the sake of others, nor compromising the importance of others for the sake of ourselves.
GK Chesterton wrote that the “…it became evident that if a man would make his world large, he must make himself small. Even haughty visions, the tall cities, the toppling pinnacles are creations of humility. Giants that tread down forests like grass are the creations of humility. Towers that vanish upward above the loneliest star are creations of humility. For towers are not tall unless we look up at them, giants are not giants unless they are larger than we. All this gigantesque imagination, which is, perhaps the mightiest of the pleasures of man, is at bottom entirely humble. It is impossible, without humility, to enjoy anything - -even pride.”
Humility expands the way we look at the world and the way we look at each other, it opens our eyes to the bigness and the realness of the world around us. When we are arrogant, we become giants in our own minds, bigger than the mountains, the towers, and the world itself. We reduce the world around us to mere morsels, we live life aloft and high perches, seldom doing anything of charity or purpose. We become stagnant except for when our pity for the lowly world around us has reached a state of such disrepair that our arrogance (not love) motivates us to act, and for those of you who have ever been helped out of pity or pride instead of charity or love you know all too well how distinct a difference love-motivated action makes, and how ineffective pride-motivated action is.
By becoming a smaller part of our own realities our eyes are opened to the world and the possibilities of what it could be. If you consider life mathematically the equation would look something like this:
Me + Everything Else in the world = Reality (aka Life, aka Your World View)
Since Reality (aka Life) is in fact constant, this means that the more of Self (Me) that I have, the less room for everything else there is. Like a buffet, you can eat whatever you like from the vast selection, however if you fill up only on shrimp cocktail, you’ll have a vastly different experience than you might if you were to sample the selection of all the flavors. No matter what you chose you may end up full, but the quality of your experience will probably be vastly impacted by the choices you make.
Humility makes room for more by becoming less. The best part is by being less selfish, we don’t become less of ourselves. The less of me I have, the more room for Christ I have made, and he is willing to fill the space no matter how big I make it.
By understanding our true place in this life we are able to embrace the bigness of the world around us. By understanding we are small in the grand scheme of things we open our eyes and our hearts to a big world. Through embracing humility, the expanses of life are opened to us and our ability to enjoy and soak in all that this beautiful life has to offer expand all the more.
Taking a smaller role in my own world view,
CP
http://chrispanoff.blogspot.com/
