All of us at some time or another get a timely jolt. It might be a joyous incident that, like the sun suddenly breaking through rainclouds, brightens our dark mood. It can also be the opposite as when an unexpected windstorm of crises blows away all thoughts of the wondrous moment that we were just immersed in. Life is unpredictable. This engenders anxiety and trust issues in many. Most of us are drawn to the comfort of consistency because we feel safe in predictable environments. However, that doesn’t cure our problem because life rarely cooperates. Therefore the anxious person still remains the same because anxiety is a wave that crashes on the shore every time an unpredictable circumstance challenges their expectations and comfort zone.
So, what’s the jolt antidote? How does one cope with the unpredictability of life? I believe the challenging answer is to endeavor to be humble in all things. Stay hungry, stay young, stay foolish, stay curious, but above all, stay humble because just when you think you got all the answers, that’s the moment when some bitter twist of fate in the universe will remind you that you very much don’t.
I offer you the following short parable to illustrate my point:
One day King Solomon decided to put Benaiah ben Yehoyada, his most trusted minister, to a test. He said to him, “Benaiah, there is a certain ring that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot which gives you six months to find it.”
“If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty,” replied Benaiah, “I will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?”
“It has magic powers,” answered the king. “If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy.” Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he the purpose of this test was that the wise king wished to give his minister a little taste of humility.
Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a walk in one of the poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a merchant who had begun to set out the day’s wares on a shabby carpet. “Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his sorrows?” asked Benaiah.
He watched as the merchant took a plain gold ring from his carpet and then engraved something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his face broke out in a wide smile.
That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great festivity. “Well, my friend,” said Solomon, “have you found what I sent you after?” All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled.
To everyone’s surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared, “Here it is, your majesty!” As soon as Solomon read the inscription, the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written three Hebrew letters on the gold band: “gimel, zayin, yud“, which began the words “Gam zeh ya’avor” — “This too shall pass.”
Humility has nothing to do with depreciating ourselves and our gifts in ways we know to be untrue. Even “humble” attitudes can be masks of pride. Humility is that freedom from our self which enables us to be in positions in which we have neither recognition nor importance, neither power nor visibility, and even experience deprivation, and yet have joy and delight. It is the freedom of knowing that we are not in the center of the universe, not even in the center of our own private universe. ? David F. Wells
Have an AWE-full Weekend!