Character in Real Life
ONE-MINUTE TESTIMONIALS
For SENSITIVITY vs Callousness
Faith Committee, Character Council of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
Sensitivity is perceiving the true attitudes and emotions of those around me.
CECIL RHODES
By Steve Withrow
Radar is a detection device whose sensitivity can be used for good or evil, to detect for the purposes of destruction as in war, or to detect for the betterment of others as in a weather forecast. Sensitivity, like radar, can be used for either good or ill depending on the disposition, or ambition of its possessor. Often throughout history we see sensitivity used for both purposes, within the same people.
One example was British financier, multi-millionaire and statesman Cecil Rhodes, whose vast fortune still endows the famous Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford. There are many examples of Rhodes’ sensitivity to business and political opportunities. He would sense an opponent’s weakness then manipulate circumstances to his own advantage. In this way he cornered the diamond market, a monopoly still controlled by the De Beers Company today.
But Rhodes’ sensitivity was used for the good of others as well. There is an oft-told story of a young man who was invited to dine at Rhodes’ exquisite home. He arrived by train and had to go directly to the banquet in his travel-worn clothes. Once there he was appalled to find the other guests had already assembled, in full formal evening dress. After a lengthy delay, Rhodes himself appeared, but in a pitiful old blue suit. The young man later learned that his host had been dressed in finery as well, but Rhodes sensed his young guest’s plight, and changed into the old suit.
Let your sensitivity be employed for God’s purposes and not your own. Sensitivity combined with servanthood is a powerful thing.
Sensitivity is: Exercising my senses so that I can perceive the true spirit and emotions of those around me; Being alert to the promptings of the Holy Spirit; Avoiding danger by sensing wrong motives in others; Knowing how to give the right words at the right time.