“Familiarity breeds contempt.” “You always hurt the ones you love.”! These words kept ringing and ringing in my head as I woke up over the weekend. These are old adages whose meaning are timeless and have stood through time.
It so happened that due to the close relationship that existed amongst Marcus and Hillary, you on the outside of this relationship would only anticipate good and nothing less. This wasn’t the case with the duo as one suddenly rose to the top and the other had to answer to him. Fellow employees who saw this did nothing better than to break up whatever existed between them. Marcus suddenly started to find himself in the midst of his colleagues who were constantly reminding him that his friend was no longer in their league. As this continued, a seed of contempt, jealousy and envy was planted in Marcus’ heart and these sprung up at a fast pace.
Hillary been the boss now and respected the friendship that existed between him and Marcus took time to explain that outside work, they are still who they are but when its about work, he should please make sure he doesn’t lag behind. Hillary’s plan was to ensure that his friend be at his best to enable him get to the top as himself. On the other hand, Marcus was so driven by contempt that he didn’t see the need to respect his friend now his boss. This led to a poor performance on Marcus’ part which later led to his retrenchment.
Sometimes, we find ourselves in the exact same shoes Marcus found himself in. That friend of yours suddenly gets ahead of you and you just can’t imagine yourself obeying or taking orders from that person. Sometimes it may be in the family where the younger suddenly outshines the older and this begins to breed contempt and all sorts of bad thoughts and wishes. It could even be children making better progress than their working-parents.
Let me remind you – Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Philippians 4:8 (MSG)
You may say, Fibee this is difficult. Sometimes they just flood one’s mind and head. Sometimes, they (colleagues and people) just come and say things. It’s not my choice. Yeah, I agree with you. But I must say you have a choice in it all. The choice to discard those thoughts, the choice to discard those sayings. The choice to do what is right in general. The choice is yours my dear friend.
I must say that I applaud Mr Hillary’s desire to help lift his friend to the top. Some of us, once we find ourselves in a position like Hillary, we soon forget who we were and become carried away with power and position that we end up hurting the ones who love us. Those who went through thick and thin with you, pushed you up that ladder of success and decided to climb after you have gone up. We don’t mind stepping on others just to remain at the top.
Need I remind you that – Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Philippians 2:3-4 (MSG)
Some of us aside from forgetting and stepping on others (especially those who have helped us reach our goal), we even start to portray these people in a bad light. I must sincerely tell you that when I see someone being cut down and divided into pieces by his/her so-called friend, I say to myself, “To what end? What will you gain out of this?”
Are you at the top? Help others get there.
Is someone you know dearly at the top? Respect him, love him. When bad thoughts begin to creep in, discard it without thinking twice.
Are you the one who is ready to step on anyone to get to the top? Let me ask you a question. Will you be there forever? When you are no longer there, can you look back and nod your head in approval of how you got there and what you did while you were there?
In conclusion, let me leave you with this Life truth – And that’s it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it’s good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:14 (MSG)
God bless you.
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