By Cyrus, The Philippines

I studied dancing at high school, and have some dancing experience. I also really like dancing. When the church arranged for me to do dancing duty, I was really happy— I felt that with my foundation, I would be sure to learn it easily. I accepted this duty without hesitation. During practice, I was able to do all the moves with ease, so I thought that I was a better dancer than my brothers and sisters. Sometimes my brothers and sisters made suggestions, saying that my moves were different from theirs, and that our dance moves should be unified. I only accepted these on the surface. In my heart, I felt that my moves were more proper than theirs, and I didn’t want to listen to them. Later, when the supervisors checked up on a video sample we made, they also mentioned that our dance moves were inconsistent and should be unified. However, they also said that my dance moves in the chorus section were very good, and that the other brothers and sisters could learn from me. They also asked me to teach them dancing. When I heard this, I was delighted, and felt even more strongly that I was the best dancer out of these people. I had lots of experience and could guide them and lead them to dance. As I was teaching them dance moves, they had to practice over and over again before they could reach my standard because my movements were quite wide-ranging and had more strength. This was very difficult for them. At the time, I didn’t reflect on myself, and didn’t make adjustments so the dance plan was more appropriate. Instead, I just thought that I was great and my dance moves were really special. When we continued practicing the next day, we had different opinions on our foot movements. I didn’t want to do it the way they suggested, because I thought that their movements didn’t look nice. I continued to teach them to practice according to my ideas.

Later, Sister Diane said that my hand movements were too exaggerated and not very pious, and asked me to reduce the range of my movements. Other brothers and sisters also agreed with her, but I didn’t accept it. I thought my movements were correct. However, I worried that if I didn’t accept their suggestion, they might say that I was very arrogant. Only then did I try reducing the range of my hand movements. When we looked back on the dance video sample, I discovered that our movements were not identical. The range of my movements was still much greater than theirs. I believed that I danced better than them and my movements were more proper. Previously, the supervisors had praised me for my good movements, and so if our movements weren’t the same, it was definitely their problem. Sometimes, even though I did things the way they suggested, I didn’t think that their movements were beautiful. Actually, every time I secretly disagreed with their suggestions and could not work well with them, my heart was in great pain. I felt very tired and could not feel the presence of God with me. I also lost my passion for my duty. I started to ponder, “Why is it that I feel pain in my heart every time I dance with them? Is doing my duty in this way in accordance with God’s intention?” I did not want to continue like this, and so I prayed to God, begging Him to enlighten me so I could reflect on my problems.

One day, during my devotionals, I read a passage of God’s words that really moved me. Almighty God says: “Do not try always to show off, always to say high-sounding things, to do things by yourself. You should learn how to work with others, and you should focus more on listening to others’ suggestions and discovering their strengths. In this way, cooperating in harmony becomes easy. If you try always to show off and have what you say go, you are not cooperating in harmony. What are you doing? You are causing a disturbance and undermining others. To cause a disturbance and undermine others is to play the role of Satan; it is not the performance of duty. If you always do things that cause a disturbance and undermine others, then no matter how much effort you expend or care you take, God will not remember. You may be of little strength, but if you are capable of working with others, and are able to accept suitable suggestions, and if you have the right motivations, and can protect the work of God’s house, then you are a right person. … If you do not understand the truth, then you must learn to obey. If there is anyone who understands the truth or speaks in accordance with the truth, then you must accept it and obey. By no means should you do things that disturb or undermine, and do not act or make decisions on your own. This way, you will do no evil. You must remember: Performing your duty is not a matter of engaging in your own enterprise or your own management. This is not your personal work, it is the work of the church, and you only contribute the strengths you have. What you do in God’s management work is but a small part of man’s cooperation. Yours is just a minor role in some corner. That is the responsibility you bear. In your heart, you should have this reason. And so, no matter how many people are performing their duties together, or what difficulties they face, the first thing everyone should do is pray to God and fellowship together, seek the truth, and then determine what the principles of practice are. When they perform their duties in this way, they will have a path to practice” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. The Proper Fulfillment of Duty Requires Harmonious Cooperation). After reading the words of God, I understood that if we want to do our duties well, we must learn how to work together with our brothers and sisters, learning from each other’s strengths to make up for our weaknesses. Only in this way would we be in accordance with God’s intention. If we constantly wanted to cling onto our own ideas, this would affect the work and incur God’s loathing. I also reflected that I did not work harmoniously with my brothers and sisters because I felt like I had more experience and danced better than them, and so they should model their movements on mine. When my brothers and sisters gave me advice that my movements were too exaggerated, I felt resistant, and didn’t want to follow their suggestions. Even though I could see that the range of my movements was indeed too large, I still didn’t want to change. Sometimes, I went along with their suggestions, but I didn’t feel comfortable about it at heart. I still believed that my movements were better, and clung onto my ideas. This meant that my movements and their movements were inconsistent and uncoordinated. I saw that I had been very arrogant, and constantly believed that my movements were correct. In fact, my movements were indeed too exaggerated and didn’t look good at all. Moreover, because my movements were inconsistent with those of others, this affected the neatness of the overall movements and affected the results of the dance. This played a disturbing role. God said: “You should learn how to work with others, and you should focus more on listening to others’ suggestions and discovering their strengths. In this way, cooperating in harmony becomes easy.” Actually all my brothers and sisters had some strengths. Some had very smooth and natural head movements, while my head movements were as stiff as those of a robot. Also, their movements, though they weren’t very large in scope, did look very elegant. I realized that when they gave me suggestions again, I should accept them, and do my utmost to follow their suggested movements. If I had a different opinion, I could state this and discuss it with my brothers and sisters, and we could work together to make our movements unified and proper, and dance well to praise God and bear witness to God.

Once, the brothers and sisters said that my shoulders and head were moving too much and needed to be adjusted, and that the movement of my waist also needed to be adjusted. To start with, I couldn’t completely accept it: I thought that my movements were correct. However, when I saw that their head movements were all different from mine, I thought that maybe they were correct after all, and I tried to accept it. Sometimes I managed to do it well, but sometimes I slipped back into my old ways again. When they were looking at me, I thought, “Why is it that I have a better foundation in dancing than them, but I’m the one who has to work hard to change my movements?” I felt very weak and embarrassed. I remembered God’s words: “You should learn how to work with others, and you should focus more on listening to others’ suggestions and discovering their strengths. In this way, cooperating in harmony becomes easy. If you try always to show off and have what you say go, you are not cooperating in harmony” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. The Proper Fulfillment of Duty Requires Harmonious Cooperation). God’s words made me understand that I should focus more on learning from other people’s good points and accepting their suggestions. Since they all said that my movements were poor, I should do my best to change. Although it’s not easy to do these movements well, I have to do my best so that our movements are unified. Moreover, accepting the suggestions of others can not only help me dance well to praise God, but can also resolve my corrupt disposition and can help me avoid arrogance and self-righteousness. That evening, I continued to practice on my own after our group practice was over. When we practiced dancing again the next day, they said that my movements were a bit better. Although my movements were still not ideal, they had shown some improvement. I cannot dance according to my own preferences— I have to consider whether our movements are consistent or not. This is because even if one of us dances very well, if they dance differently from others, then our dance moves will not look beautiful or neat, and will not achieve good results. Later, the supervisors watched the dance video we had made and said that our movements had improved. I knew that this was God’s leadership, and was also a result achieved through our harmonious cooperation.

One day, I read some words of God at a gathering, which gave me some new understanding of my own corrupt disposition. Almighty God says: “Mankind is so deeply corrupted by Satan that all of them have a satanic nature and an arrogant disposition; even fools and idiots are arrogant, and think they’re better than other people and refuse to obey them. It is clear to see that mankind is so deeply corrupted and that it is very difficult for them to submit to God. Because of their arrogance and self-righteousness, people have become completely lacking in reason; they won’t obey anyone—even if what other people say is right and conforms to the truth, they won’t obey them. It is because of arrogance that people dare to judge God, condemn God, and resist God. So, how can an arrogant disposition be resolved? Can it be resolved by depending on human restraint? Can it be solved by merely recognizing and acknowledging it? Absolutely not. There is only one way to resolve an arrogant disposition, and that is to accept God’s judgment and chastisement. Only those who are able to accept the truth can gradually cast off their arrogant dispositions; those who do not accept the truth will never be able to resolve their arrogant dispositions. I see many people who let it go to their head when they show some talent in their duty. When they show some abilities, they think they are very impressive, and then they live off these abilities and do not push themselves further. They do not listen to others no matter what they say, thinking that these small things they possess are the truth, and that they are supreme. What disposition is this? This is an arrogant disposition. They are far too lacking in reason. Can a person perform their duty well when they have an arrogant disposition? Can they submit to God and follow God to the very end? This is even more difficult. To fix an arrogant disposition, they must learn how to experience God’s work, His judgment and chastisement while performing their duty. Only in this way can they truly know themselves. Only by seeing your corrupted essence clearly, seeing the root of your arrogance clearly, and then discerning and dissecting it can you truly know your nature essence. You must dig up all of the corrupt things inside of you, and hold them up against and come to know them based on the truth, then you will know what you are: Not only are you filled with a corrupt disposition, and not only do you lack reason and submission, but you will see that you are lacking in too many things, that you have no truth reality, and how pitiful you are. Then, you will be incapable of arrogance. If you do not dissect and know yourself in this way, then when you perform your duty you will not know your place in the universe. You will think you are great in every way, that everything about others is bad, and that only you are the best. Then, you will show off to everyone all the time, so that others look up to you and worship you. This is completely lacking in self-awareness. Some people are always showing off. When others find it distasteful, they criticize them as being arrogant. But they do not accept it; they still think they are talented and skilled. What disposition is this? They are too arrogant and self-righteous. Are people who are this arrogant and self-righteous capable of thirsting for the truth? Can they pursue the truth? If they are never able to know themselves, and do not cast off their corrupt disposition, then can they perform their duty well? Certainly not” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Knowing One’s Disposition Is the Foundation of Changing It). After reading the words of God, I understood that because a person has an arrogant disposition, they constantly believe that they are right, and that they are superior to others. It is very difficult to submit to God and take on the suggestions of others like this. When a person has some gifts or skills in certain areas, they will think that they are better and more knowledgeable than others, work according to their own ideas, and find it difficult to cooperate with others. Even if the suggestions put forward by others align with principles, they do not want to adopt them. My behavior was exactly like this. I believed that I had experience in dancing and so other people should learn from my movements. In particular, when the supervisors said that I danced well, I developed an even higher opinion of myself. When my brothers and sisters gave me suggestions, I didn’t listen to them carefully, and did not want to try them out to improve. Even though what my brothers and sisters said was correct, and I could clearly see that my movements were not the same as and not in coordination with everybody else’s, I still didn’t want to accept it, and didn’t want to change myself. I thought, “Why should I listen to you? I’m a better dancer than you. I should be the one guiding you.” When my brothers and sisters wanted me to repeatedly practice a dance step, I didn’t want to accept this, and felt like they were teaching me. Wasn’t this behavior of mine too arrogant? It’s God’s sovereignty and arrangement that we dance together, so that we can work together well and do our duty well. However, I was arrogant and self-righteous: I always danced in my own way and didn’t accept the suggestions of others, which resulted in poor cooperation between brothers and sisters and also delayed the progress of the dance. Actually, the dance moves that I had learned in the world were not principles or standards. Some movements were too exaggerated and not very pious: They could not achieve the effect of testifying to God. I am a believer in God, and should move in a dignified and proper manner. I dance in order to praise God and so that the audience feels pleasure in their hearts and can praise God together with me. I could not continue to be arrogant and cling onto my ideas. I must submit to the requirements of the house of God and let go of myself, working harmoniously with my brothers and sisters.

Later, I read a passage of God’s words: “Do you think anyone is perfect? No matter how strong people are, or how capable and talented, they still are not perfect. People must recognize this, it is fact, and it is the attitude that people should have to correctly approach their own merits and strengths or faults; this is the rationality that people should possess. With such rationality, you can properly deal with your own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of others, and this will enable you to work alongside them harmoniously. If you have understood this aspect of the truth and can enter this aspect of the truth reality, then you can get along harmoniously with your brothers and sisters, drawing on their strong points to offset any weaknesses you have. In this way, no matter what duty you are performing or what you are doing, you will always get better at it and have God’s blessing” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three). From God’s words I understood that no matter what skills we have or what experience we have in a particular area, it doesn’t mean that we won’t make mistakes and doesn’t mean that we are perfect. Everyone makes mistakes and has shortcomings. This requires us to learn from each other’s strengths to make up for our weaknesses before we can do our duty well. In the past, I didn’t work well with my brothers and sisters when we were practicing. My disposition was very arrogant, and I always thought I was better. I didn’t treat their suggestions seriously, and so my dance movements were always inconsistent with theirs. If it hadn’t been for the exposure of God’s words and the guidance of my brothers and sisters, I would not have understood myself, and would have been even more arrogant. I must learn from my brothers and sisters. I should learn from their strengths to make up for my weaknesses and help each other. Only in this way can we do our duty well. Later, when we were dancing, my brothers and sisters pointed out some more problems I had. For example, my movements were too quick and my pace was different from theirs. They suggested that I slow down a bit so I could be consistent with them. When I heard these suggestions, even though they were not to my liking, I didn’t want to cling to my own ideas as I had before. I must work harmoniously with my brothers and sisters and accept their suggestions. When I practiced like this, my movements were better than before, I was able to maintain consistency with them, and my dancing improved.

Through this experience, I learned how to work properly with my brothers and sisters, and gained some understanding of my own arrogant disposition. That I was able to gain this slight understanding and effect this small change is a result achieved by the words of God. I am very thankful to God!