This morning I found myself reflecting on true greatness. This was inspired by the pictures I happened to come across on my PC from last month when I attended the ordination of my best friend and brother, now the Reverend Bonganjalo Mbenenge, into the gospel ministry in the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa. Knowing the circumstances around Bonga’s birth, the kind of home he comes from, the kind of wife he has been blessed with, what he had to give up when he answered the call to ministry, the work he is already involved in, I knew that I was witnessing one of those uncommon experiences in life, watching someone stepping into what they were put in this world for. One of the most incredible and even deeply spiritual moments is to witness someone doing, not only what they love, but also what they believe they were put in this world for. There is something almost supernatural about witnessing someone stepping into their life purpose, and making a contribution to this world through what comes naturally to them, and what they do best.
Whether it was watching Zidane on the soccer field, Michael Jordan on the basketball court, , Stevie Wonder effortlessly hitting those high notes, Barack Obama infusing a people with hope for change or Nelson Mandela stepping out of prison to attempt reconciling a nation torn asunder. We have all been inspired by these well-known personalities, and have admired how they have beaten the odds to scribe their names on the records of history, by simply pursuing what they truly believed they were put in this world for. We have celebrated these individuals, and would go at length to witness them do what they do best, even if it means we pay large amounts of money just to be in the same room as them.
While, for these larger than life personalities, pursuing their purpose has translated into a life of being celebrated and wealth, we should ever be careful of equating a life of purpose to a life of being celebrated, and/or wealth. There are many people we might never know about, as my friend Bonga, that have stepped into their life purpose and are daily and faithfully living their lives the best way they know how. Whether it is that grandmother in some African village who is raising her grandchildren because their parents have succumbed to HIV/AIDS related deaths; the teacher who is giving his all to the children learning under a tree, with no textbooks, technology, not even a classroom to make his work easier; the doctor who works so many hours in an under-resourced public hospital without sleep to save lives; that young white South African who is going out of her way to defy cultural and class norms and expectations that are meant to perpetuate separateness between her and those who do not look like her, being aware that though she was born after Apartheid, her whiteness means she still accesses benefits that have accrued over generations, and she will use those benefits to the best of her abilities to make sure that others, especially those that do not look like her, also experience them; that male pastor who, out of solidarity, chooses to lose his job , because he refuses to be ordained and enjoy the benefits of being an ordained minister, while the same denominational organisation refuses to ordain other equally qualified and capable ministers simply because of their gender.
These are examples of the many heroes and heroines we might never get to hear about. These are people that make this world a better place to live in, because they are in it. These are the people whose lives are worthy of emulation. These are people that remind us that anyone can be great, because anyone can serve. These are people that inspire me, and make me want to be a better man. These are the people whose lives echo with Windsor Longfellow’s words from the poem “A Psalm of Life”, when he says:
“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time”.
