WHEN OPPORTUNITY MEETS DESIRE: A CALL TO HUMILITY

 

There is a subtle danger in the human heart: the belief that we are stronger, wiser, or more disciplined than others simply because we have not yet faced their kind of temptation. Many walk with an air of quiet pride, mistaking lack of opportunity for moral superiority. Yet, humility begins where this illusion ends.

 

True humility is not self-belittlement; it is the awareness that under different circumstances, we might have done the very things we condemn in others. The only difference between strength and failure, between standing tall and falling hard, is often that invisible intersection where desire meets access. That moment when longing finds opportunity is the true test of character. And unless we have stood in that storm ourselves, we should be careful not to boast of our calm.

 

The mind itself is a master of self-deception. It can rationalise anything. One day we may vehemently reject an idea; a few weeks later, under different emotions or influences, we may find ourselves defending the same thing we once detested. It is only when grace opens our eyes again that we look back in wonder, asking, “What just happened to me?” That moment of realisation births wisdom and compassion. For we begin to understand that others, too, are fighting their own invisible wars.

 

This is why I find no joy in the public sport of digging up old videos or statements to mock how someone’s opinions have changed over the years. Growth demands evolution. To hold someone hostage to who they were ten or twenty years ago is to deny the very essence of being human. We are all being reshaped by experience, by pain, by revelation, by time.

 

If you have never stumbled in a certain area, give thanks, not judgment. If you have overcome a weakness that once enslaved you, wear gratitude, not pride. It was not by your strength alone, but by grace, that merciful force that lifts, restores, and forgives. For without grace and the law of forgiveness, none of us would stand.

 

So, let us walk humbly. Let us resist the temptation to measure others by their worst moments while measuring ourselves by our best intentions. And when we see someone fall, may our first instinct not be to point fingers, but to whisper a prayer of mercy for them and for ourselves. Because humility is not thinking less of ourselves; it is remembering how easily we, too, could have been the ones in need of grace.