Strength of Compassion

Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power.  But a weak man knows the value of strength.  And knows compassion.

Those are the inspiring words that I heard when I went to go see Captain America at the movies yesterday.  I can really relate to the quote, and I believe many of you can too.  We’ve all seen someone that supposedly has everything and we’ve wanted what they have.  But then if we look deeper into their life, we realize they are very arrogant and take what they have for granted.  Celebrities have thrown their life away to drug use and criminal actions.  They have become full of themselves and have begun to believe that they are the center of attention at all times.  I don’t think anyone wants to become like that.  Here’s to the weak men and women out there that society has looked past, the men and women I believe to be the strongest of all, in their heart.
 
I am physically a weak man with my ever-weakening muscles.  I’ve had time to look at the world in a unique way.  I’ve been through many situations where I cannot do what other people can; situations where I had to realize that I physically could not do something, when mentally I believed I could do it.  It is very hard to make that realization without looking down on yourself, which is what I struggled with.  I saw others doing, what I had struggled to do, rather easily.  This, in the end, made me have a stronger compassion and more gratitude for what I could do.

I may not be able to run a mile, but I can be the mental force behind someone running in a marathon.  I may not be able to drive a car, but I can help give driving directions.  I may not be able to play a sport, but I can still watch them with my friends.  Taking gratitude for these things I could do made me stronger in my heart.  Arrogance comes from not being grateful for what you have, so I was able to avoid it as much as I could.  But really, is there anyone out there that is truly weak or truly strong?

We each have things that we are stronger at along with things that we are weaker at.  By finding the middle ground between our strengths and weaknesses, we can be grateful for our life and give compassion to others that may share our weaknesses.  There are some weaknesses we can never truly get rid of, but those are the weaknesses that teach us lessons and make us better people.  No one is perfectly strong either; we all have something inside of us holding us back and slowly pulling us down.  Life is dependent on a balancing act, where we use our strengths to counteract our weaknesses and use our weaknesses to counteract our strengths.  Too much weakness is a bad thing and too much strength is also a bad thing, so try hard to find that equilibrium.