A couple of young boys, brothers, were wrestling on the living room floor. As many times happens the boys were exceeding the tolerance of their father with their loudness. The father stood and placed his foot between their now intertwined bodies and strong action and a firm voice separated them and said, “Knock it off you monkeys!!” The 3-year-old and younger brother looked up at his dad and blurted out, “We not monkeys. We people!”
It is a valuable lesson in life to know who we are and with whom we are associating. In fact, it is essential to our well-being and happiness. Those who neglect this lesson do so at their own peril and at the peril of others. If we assume that we are simply objects, to be acted upon by others, we may learn to manipulate others by the force of our words or the power of our muscle. We may come to think that to have is the ultimate measure of our value. To have money or power or things can become our motivation. Winning is therefore determined by our accumulation of things. Things may include influence, ‘friends’, likes, or objects. Truth is defined in such a world as whatever we want it to be. It is based on situations and is transactional. In this world we will never have enough of anything, most of all satisfaction, peace, joy, or love.
I submit that our value is eternal and was placed in us by the Eternal Creator. That value is not transactional. It does not grow or diminish based on what we do or have. If we can learn this simple truth, we will discover that to become is the purpose of life and is the only sure way to well-being and happiness. To become who we are. To treat others based on who they are. To love people and use things instead of loving things and using people. That is a grand secret to success. That behavior will attract to us, abundance. We will soon discover that loving people for who they are and not faking that love so as to manipulate them to give us what we think we want will bring to us without force or compulsion all the goodness of the universe.
We are sons and daughters of the King of Creation and therefore inherit all that He has, if we do as He has asked, Do Good and Be Good!
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship,…… All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to …….this destination. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
