Home
>
Spirituality
>
Living Your Noble Purpose

Living Your Noble Purpose

"A common jar of clay can never become a noble masterpiece, unless it is broken by its master, refined in fire, and renewed." ? Sharif Khan

There is a passage in scriptures that I have always found troubling. It reads: "Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" [Romans 9: 20-21]. It troubles me, because no matter how hard I try to live a nobler life, I look to the brilliant stars above me and wonder if my life has already been written 'for common use.'

Haven't we all wondered at times if we were destined for greatness or gloominess? Is our destiny sealed by a written fate or is our outer-world but a reflection of our inner-world determined by our thoughts and will? Can the common jar of clay become a noble masterpiece? Can the wild bush become a walnut tree?

History dictates that the common jar of clay will always remain a common jar of clay; it can never become a noble masterpiece on its own accord. Ancient relics that have been buried for thousands of centuries have remained relatively the same after being uncovered by archaeologists. Likewise, nature dictates that wild bush seed will always yield wild bush, and nothing else. The jar of clay, the wild bush, they cannot change because they have no will. If they do have a will, it is very weak, and so bound by their make. Or, depending on how you look at it, very strong, because they are determined to be who they were born to be. Either way you look at it, they cannot change because it is not in their nature ? they cannot think for themselves.

Humans on the other hand do have a will, and a much stronger one at that: we can choose to kill someone or save a life, we can study in our field of endeavor or choose a life of crime, we can work out to become an Olympic athlete, or we can pig out and eventually die of a heart attack. As humans, the big difference is that we all have the faculty of reasoning and can significantly change the environment around us.

Although many of us have heard numerous examples in life where people from complete poverty and everything working against them beat the odds to become great, we still, in our heart of hearts, skeptically ask ourselves the question, "Can a pauper become a prince?" Can we really, truly change our character? Intellectually, it would seem the answer is no. But my intuition tells me yes. Or is it the part of me that hopes and dreams and wishes, but always falls short, because it is just that - a dream, and nothing more? The part of me that marketers love to take advantage of: you too can become a bestselling author, an academy award winning actor, an Olympic athlete, if you take our program, pill or practice.

Yet we have seen paupers turn into princes have we not? Sidney Poitier, the legendary actor, grew up in extreme poverty to become a shining prince and take home an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in acting and filmmaking; John Steinbeck was a university drop out who worked as a sales clerk, farm laborer, ranch hand, and factory worker, and yet became a literary giant who won both the Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize for Literature. Mother Teresa was a nun who taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but later experienced 'a call within a call' becoming a world leader who won the Nobel Prize for Peace and earning the tribute, "Saint of the Gutters."

It would seem then that these examples defy scriptures; that the pottery for common use has become pottery for noble purposes. But it is easy to forget that the maker that makes us for one purpose, can also break us, and re-make us for another. The potter can break common clay, refine it and purify it in fire, in spirit, and recreate a noble masterpiece. The forester can burn an entire expanse of wild bush land and plant in that same soil a new seed.

Any person who has achieved greatness has been 'broken-in.' They have encountered life situations that have broken them, humbled them, brought them to their knees, and cut their egos down to size, shattering their limited conception of self. It is in these moments of breaking that they have learned to persevere. It's God's way of making the wise foolish, and fools wise.

We are all clay in the potter's hands. And the world breaks everyone. All of us have experienced situations in life that have tested us severely. Hey, shit happens?but if it didn't, we'd all be constipated. It's a good thing! But if we refuse to humble ourselves, refuse to take risks in life, refuse to see our own worst faults, stubbornly refuse to learn from our failures, and keep repeating the same mistakes, the shit piles up pretty fast! And that can be very painful.

We have only ourselves to blame for being put to common use and settling for mediocrity. If we were to read the scriptures more deeply, we would realize that the maker is in us, for it clearly states, "Behold the Kingdom of God is within you!" [Luke 17:21] And so living a life of noble purpose requires surrendering to the master within ? letting go and letting great. Only by willing to be broken and humbled can we be rebuilt in far stronger spiritual clay. For as Hemingway once wrote, "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially." ■

Sharif Khan is a professional speaker and author of "Psychology of the Hero Soul," an inspirational book on awakening the Hero within and developing people's leadership potential. You can reach him at sharif@herosoul.com or by visiting sharif@herosoul.com

Sharif provides inspirational keynotes and leadership development workshops that entertain, educate, and empower. To book Sharif as a speaker for your next event call: (416) 417-1259.

full-service cleaning Des Plaines ...

In The News:

Uber teen accounts now feature live video streaming from the driver's camera, but encrypted recordings stay on Uber's servers for up to 14 days.

Router firewalls and software firewalls serve different roles in protecting your home Wi-Fi from unwanted traffic and suspicious connections.

A Chrome extension with 70,000 users and a 4.7-star rating began injecting fake update warnings after a threat actor acquired and weaponized it.

Amazon's Alexa+ rolls out free to Fire TV devices across the U.S., but hands-free microphones and stored voice data raise key privacy questions.

Meta's new teen accounts settlement sets a default two-hour daily limit on Instagram and Facebook, plus night mode and school mode restrictions.

The CareCloud data breach exposed Social Security numbers, banking information and medical records belonging to more than 3.75 million people.

Waymo reveals its custom 5-nanometer chip and dual computing systems designed to take over instantly if the robotaxi's primary computer fails.

Identity theft now includes account takeover, phone hijacking and payment card exposure. Here's what to look for in identity theft protection services.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

The FBI and Justice Department seized domains tied to QScan and QTRouter, tools allegedly used by China-linked hackers to breach NASA and other agencies.

Uber Eats drone delivery launches later this year through a Zipline partnership, starting in Dallas and Houston with a goal of one million daily flights.

Medicare Open Enrollment scams start with data broker targeting months before October. Learn why August is the time to remove your personal info.

The World Humanoid Robot Games' crashes show how far the technology still needs to go to be useful, "Survivor" reality TV star and robotics scientist Christian Hubicki says.

X-Humanoid's TianGong Ultra ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds at Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games, beating last year's winner by more than half.

A tap-to-pay charity scam is turning small $15 or $20 donations into charges of nearly $5,000, with victims losing thousands before they notice.

Kurt Knutsson shares seven emergency preparedness lessons from surviving Hurricane Katrina inside a New Orleans hotel as conditions turned desperate.

A contractor stored credentials in a Google Doc set to "Anyone with the link," and Google Search autocomplete eventually surfaced the password string.

New Orleans 911 uses Carbyne AI to triage repeat auto crash calls, but strict limits keep human call-takers in control of all other emergencies.

A single card skimmer can generate $1 million in stolen funds, and Secret Service video shows criminals installing them in under two seconds.

ChatGPT, Meta AI and Google now use memory, connected apps and past chats to personalize ads and responses in ways most users overlook today.

MagicalAuth by Glide.id uses cryptographic SIM credentials to verify bank logins without sending SMS OTP codes that scammers can intercept or phish.

A humanoid robot named Lightning Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, edging Usain Bolt's record.

An AI agent using Claude AI canceled another person's gym booking after finding a security flaw in the reservation system's authorization checks.

Trump signed a memorandum allowing vetted private U.S. companies to conduct cyber operations against foreign criminal organizations under oversight.

Your Social Security number appeared in a breach, but exposure and identity theft are not the same. Here's how identity restoration actually works.

Living Your Noble Purpose

Spirituality