I remember a literary trip to Hebei Province in China and there was a guest from Nepal.
How did it feel to come from a country like Nepal, that holds the world's highest peak, Mt. Everest? It must be one of the greatest feelings in the world.
I kept asking him about it.
"Have you been to Mt. Everest?" I asked.
"Yes, I see it often and as a school, we would tour there.
"How does it feel?" I probed.
He must feel like a rock star. Imagine glimpsing at Mt. Everest everyday as you go to work. Nothing caps that.
And then I remembered that we too have the Equator. Beat that. We are at the centre of the world, at 0 degrees Latitude.
The Equator is a compulsory subject in geography. We are a significant world landmark. More people will hear and learn about The Equator than they will ever learn about Mt. Everest.
Why was it still so hard for me to convince myself that Uganda had something special and extraordinary too?
It happens a lot. Everyone else has it better than you do. You look at other people's marriages, at their newly built homes, at their well-behaved children, at their multiple degrees and their well-toned physique and then compare yourself and your thoughts turn ugly.
You even scroll their social media and their quotes are going viral,while everyone in your WhatsApp group ignores you.
You will search and search and always find something better on the outside, until you start searching in the right place.
The outside is inconsistent and beyond your control. It will agonise you and make you fret until the day you die.
Work on what is on the inside. I have observed people over the years and experienced the same thing. Someone's true completion comes when they are genuinely in Christ.
The ones who genuinely seek him and are complete, have a different vibe. They are content. They do not covet or rush to outdo everyone at every turn.
They do not negate others' good deeds by bragging about their own. They sit back when it's another person's turn to shine.
They are the husbands who openly praise their wives in public instead of humiliating her out of scorn. They are the women who are Christians on Sundays and everyday, no matter how descpicable their workmates are.
They are the people who do not always seek to have the last word at every conversation. They politely walk away when the atmosphere is tarnished and vile.
They are content to sit alone and read, write, or just think. It is not crucial to them that everybody likes them, because they have high self-worth and a community of friends who value peace and prayer.
These people love who they are and they do not wish to be like anybody else or to change their ways to fit in. It's exhausting.
They work on who they are, because depth is what is meaningful.
Bless!
Bev
