Self-Improvement

Are You Cheating Yourself From Your Own Greatness?

Roger Muhammad

In a March 20 tweet the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan wrote the following:
“God is working on us, but if you do not stay in the process, you will not see the result of yourself being made into Him.”
As a noun, the standard definition of the word process is “a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.” As a verb, the word process means to “perform a series of mechanical or chemical operations on (something) in order to change or preserve it.”
All of us who strive to work the Will of God and to serve His people are engaged in a process, which, as we may or may not realize, is actually operating on us to stimulate the Divine fiber of our natural inner gifts, our greatness and our destiny.
Unfortunately, many start the process with vigour and zeal only to give up after a while. Now the question is, what exactly is the root cause for 99.9% of the people who leave or break away from churches, mosques, groups or organizations involved in trying to raise our people? Is it because they stop believing in the movement or the organization? Why did Malcolm X really leave the Honorable Elijah Muhammad? Why did some around Martin Luther King Jr. leave the SCLC? Why do people leave churches or mosques or temples?
In most cases, we will find that at the root, it was interpersonal tensions and dissatisfaction, in some cases legitimate, and in others not, that really motivated that person to leave the movement. It isn’t that they stopped believing in the principles of that organization, church or mosque, rather, it is that some event or events caused them to become disenchanted.
In some cases, some person(s) in authority in that organization, church, mosque or work environment has mistreated you. An atmosphere of envy and jealousy may have built up around you because of some skill or gift that you have been blessed with, which some in that group may have been threatened by in some way.
In other cases, it could be that you’re not feeling recognized for your proper value by the group or organization. You may feel like if you were in charge, things would move faster, things would be better, that we would make more progress. This may come from a sentiment, real or perceived, that things are moving too slowly. In the worst of cases, this could be motivated by our own lust for power, which, unfortunately, could be a character flaw we fail to recognize in ourselves (as Br. Jamil Muhammad posted on Facebook recently from the Minister, sometimes “Our egos are our problems”).
But in any event or cause, the result is the same. The person gives up. They “move on” to something else. They end up saying, “this isn’t for me” or “I can’t take that kind of environment.”
However, ask yourself when you look at the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has stayed the course of this struggle for over 60 years, how did he get to where he is today? Do we think the minister rose to the heights of the Nation of Islam on a crystal staircase? If so, we seriously need to read the book, ‘Closing the Gap’ (or re-read it) to disabuse and disenthrall our minds from this false concept and idea.
The minister, in fact, had to overcome almost insurmountable envy and vitriol targeted at him (please re-listen to Saviours’ Day 2016, Part II, for more details). Nevertheless, he continued, he endured the abuse, kept on moving, and ultimately met and overcame all obstacles in his path.
The question now is: What is the path all about? The answer in the context of this article is “The path is really about achieving Divine Greatness by Manifesting His Divine Purpose in your Life.
Ask yourself, what is your purpose? Then ask yourself, what is the circumstantial process that God set in your life for you to accomplish that divine purpose? More specifically, for those left or separated from a group, church, mosque or organization where you initially found both a purpose and a process through which you could exercise the greatness that God deposited in you, question yourself: Why did you really leave?
If you still believe in the principles and purpose and process of that group, organization, church or mosque, does whatever caused you to fall away really have that much power? Is it so powerful and important that it would rob you of the environment where such potential can really be manifested for the good of yourself and perhaps thousands and maybe millions of others?
In closing, revisit your own original birth process. Was it easy for you? Was it easy for the mother who bore you? Was there pain? Was there a moment when you said to yourself, “This isn’t for me, maybe I need to stay in this womb where I was so comfortable.” Emphatically not!
The proof is that you made it. You’re here! And you’re here because you have a great purpose. So if you’ve entered a process, whatever that process is that you believe will lead you to your purpose, then please don’t give up. Unless you find that some other process is in fact better for you, continue with what you’re doing and what you believe in and let nothing or no one get in between yourself, your God and your destiny.
In closing, anything of value in this article is from Allah (God), His Christ and their servant in our midst. Only the mistakes are mine.
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