When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests.and i thought wow, thats a reeeeally smart tactic. by volunteering to be in a humiliatory position, the only way...is up! after all, if one enjoys hardship, then there is no hardship...all the more glorious is that the possibility for change will never result in disappointment. its no wonder that this philosophy of no disappointment was reiterated by yet another smart guy some 900 years later..
Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, "Come up here," than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.and so is the nature of human pride, a cyclical beast bound by the laws of nature still...those who expect more are eventually disappointed while those who are happy with less are always overflowing. pride pedals the wheels of a stationary bicycle.
these parables teach of the futility of the chase of fame, power and comfort--futility in a sense that these things do not last, due to the fact that they are taken away as soon as they are achieved. whether by nature or by men, neither is as significant as the phrase we have all come to hear and admire, albeit without full appreciation, "And this, too, shall pass away".
in these times i have often wondered if these old words could still apply. in fact they do. it is quite valid to assume that the philosophy of zero expectation could lead to a very contented and happy life. the expectations do not just include material posessions like food, water, shelter and mates. im not talking about job security, nor even friends, nor quality of sex life. no, this philosophy also applies to the things higher up the Maslow hierarchy: psychosocial dynamics affecting our value of selves...
sooner or later down the road of life some of us become more demanding (more expecting of things, put into context), and pride somehow convinces us that we have a right to demand what others are not getting. the false conclusion involving something that is specially given, with the idea that we are special people who deserve them--to put it simply...it is the principle of privilege gone nuts.
not everyone can get special things, because not everyone is special. but problems still arise...because pride has a funny way of convincing the man that he is special and so thinks he deserves what he actually doesnt. to avoid the risk of such a humiliating mistake, i guess the best move is just to not expect privileges. after all privileges are not rights, and rights only guarantee that all men are equal (women, you are equal to men too).
if Jesus and Solomon are right, then the humble will receive their privileges, while the proud will have theirs stripped away leaving behind a bitterness on their tongue for life, man and God. their loss.
2 comments:
I think that the notion of taking the lowered position to be able to have the chance of being elevated, has no connotations that are positive.
I would think taking the lowered position, and not viewing the lowered position as a lower standing, but of no variance to the elevated position. Would that be too ideal or utopic?
neither is the notion of taking the higher position with the intent to stay there.
but im glad that we both see the fallacy of this solution: that the selfless route appears to be encouraged by a fundamentally selfish rationale.
yet i find it hard to believe that one would not see the humbling option as the more noble one simply because the reasoning behind the recommendation was unsavoury.
but just as being lowered with the opportunity to be raised may appear facetious at first, neither is it respectable to raise oneself with the expectation to remain in that elevated state. in fact it is the lesser of two evils. much, much lesser.
although it is far from true humility, it is infinitely closer to heaven than the other option.
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