Measuring Up
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Authors
Gillick, Larry, S.J.
Issue Date
2015-05-05
Volume
Issue
Type
Text
Language
en_US
Keywords
Glimpses by Fr. Gillick
Alternative Title
Abstract
Did you ever wonder if you were a good sharpener of pencils or reader of thermometers? Probably not. There is a measurement in the field of statistics known as "Standard deviations". I did not do very well in that course, but this I remember, as one does nightmares. One S.D. represents two/thirds of who or what is being tested. So simply speaking, one hundred people take a test, thirty-three will be above the medium and one/third below. Isn't that worth a view points in a Trivial Pursuit contest? Like I said, I am not sure of that, but it sounds good as it rolls around in my bad-memory attic.|We like to know how we're doing in most everything we do. Things which are distant from the importance of our self-images, self-identities we worry less how they reflect us. The closer an action is to our skin, or spirit, or self-concept, well the more it takes on importance. Sharpening a pencil is just that. Being in a contest though does put a point on it. The sharpened pencil does not mean as much as how it is judged in comparison not with other pencils, but other sharpeners! In some strange way we ask others, by how they judge our actions, to tell us that we are okay, good, excellent, A-double-plus.|The closer a personal action is to our hearts, or personality-center, the more insecure we become. Our identities are so fragile, we desire that the good we want to be is reflected in the good we want to do. That interior good is so limited, we long to be infinitely good which leads us to doubt the good, fearfully express or expose the good and hope it is at least "good enough". It takes both courage and gratitude to be persons of real revelation.|So two/thirds of us are close to the normal. There are those two or three S.D.s who are either more terrified or less in this area of letting God's goodness through. I would say Jesus and Mary were out there pretty far, maybe a five! You can figure out for yourselves who are in the negative fourth or fifth. This I do know. When I am at home in my own skin, spirit, heart, I will want to let it out no matter what you might think of what I do. When you stray from home, from your good spirit, who will come knocking at your door for the affirmation you cannot give yourself. Good friends will tell me to go back home and receive a self they cannot give me. Good friends do affirm the limited good in each other and refrain from encouraging others only on the basis of what their friends do. Good friends do not deal in Standard Deviations, but deviate from standardizing, judging and contests. They stay too close for objective evaluations.|It is just a glimpse and I am trying not to care what you think.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Creighton University, Online Ministries