“Strong people make as many mistakes as weak people. Difference is that strong people admit their mistakes, laugh at them, learn from them. That is how they become strong.” ~ Richard Needham
I have an inherent distrust of so called spiritual leaders who profess to have all the answers.
They set off my bullshit meter.
Because – let’s be honest – NO ONE could possibly have all the answers, if for no other reason than that we haven’t even begun to figure out all the questions.
Once upon a time, I spent a significant amount of time in fairly close proximity to a well-known “spiritual teacher.” This man had the books, the workshops, the press… and the amazing thing to me was that he was living a life in direct contradiction to his teachings.
And you weren’t allowed to question him.
If he had been honest – if he had been the type of person who was capable of saying, “you know, I have a clear vision of how things should be, and I’m human. I’m on this path, too, striving to integrate these big truths into my every day life and I don’t always get it right.” – I might have followed him anywhere.
But instead, because he was a self-proclaimed prophet, and his actions were indisputable, I first grew to despise him and then to pity him.
But I surely didn’t respect him.
We worry that admitting we are human will make us appear weak; we fear that being fallible will detract from the truths we speak. But, in the end, the people we most admire and trust are the ones who have the confidence and integrity to say, “I don’t know” or “I was wrong,” or “I struggle, too.”
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience,” said Teilhard de Chardin, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
And, making mistakes seems to be inherently human; therefore, part of our purpose must be to goof up and learn from it.
Wouldn’t it be best if we just admitted it, and got on with the process of growing?
“A great man is always willing to be little.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson