From the ODAT, page 197:
"Complacency is an enemy, easy to recognise in others, but difficult to admit in ourselves. It is rarely listed among the major human faults, yet it can hinder us in every form of personal growth. Complacency simply means being sure we're right, taking it for granted that our view couldn't possibly be wrong. It means judging others by what we think is right. It blocks our understanding and kindness, and justifies qualitites in ourselves that we wouldn't find tolerable in others."
This little paragraph from today's reading carries enormous wisdom.
For me, complacency walks hand in hand with arrogance. If I have one, I have the other. Whenever I find myself thinking that I know how someone else should be behaving, I need to step back, detach from them and their choices, and turn that beam of judgement upon myself. I don't need to be unkind in my study of my character flaws, but I do need to be honest.
Complacency is never honest. Complacency hides the self behind a wall of self-satisfied, judgemental, rigidity. Complacency suggests that I am a finished project, with no further work to be done.
Just writing that line makes me smile, it's so far from the truth.
Syd wrote about this today as well. We are a work in progress and we always will be! If we become complacent we fail to progress!
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing on this topic. It was one that I thought about this morning after the meeting last night.
ReplyDeleteI learned AND believed early on that I am either moving forward/progressing OR I'm moving backward/regressing....there is no such thing as standing still/complacency in my book. If I think I'm coasting, I'm actually going backward.
ReplyDeletePG