Two things.
1.) I was leaving a local business today when I saw an elderly woman coming in the next set of doors (just down from the ones I was coming in). I did what I thought was the normal thing and walked over to open the door for her. She looked at me with a face of pure shock and joy and said with a tone of disbelief: “Well, I guess chivalry is not dead”.
2.) Tonight the Journey Church men’s soccer team played its inaugural game at Wall2Wall indoor soccer complex. At the beginning of the 2nd half we were killing the other team like 10-1. I was sitting out to start the half watching the guys move the ball around like it was a pre-game drill when the referee walked by our bench and said: “You guys must really like each other, you sure know how to share the ball.” To which I replied: That’s what happens when you get a couple of years outside of high school… you begin to realize that it can be a lot more fun to pass the ball around as opposed to trying to take the whole team on by yourself”. Now, this might sound funny coming from the guy who scored four goals…. but like I said, it was a particularly easy night for the Journey Fellas!
Now some thoughts…
Is it really so rare for a guy to hold a door open for an elderly woman? Forget that… is it really so rare for a person to hold a door for another person? Are we so consumed with ourselves and the agendas for our day that we can’t take 3-4 seconds out of our rush to stop and think about someone else? As I look around at the culture we live in, I’m not sure that I want to know the answer to that question….
Driving home from the game I began to think about the interchange between the referee and myself. Was it really so rare for a sports team to actually pass the ball around in order to maximize your chances of scoring a goal, or winning the game? As I sit on my couch watching SportsCenter and see the box-scores roll through, I believe the answer to my question is a grim one.
Is it really so rare for me to not be the focus of my own life? I wish there was a pill that we could take to eliminate the selfish gene in our systems. There was no mistake when Apple Inc. decided to change the world of consumer electronics with a simple marketing campaign. iPod, iWeb, iLife, iWork. They took something that was active within each of us and encouraged us to indulge in it. “Your life is already about you, why not make your electronics about you as well?” It all makes perfect sense….
My goal everyday is to live my life in such a way that whether I am walking out of a store, or playing a game on a field, people take notice of my actions. Not because they are noble, outrageous, or bizarre. Rather, I hope they take notice because it is something that runs against the current of their life… I hope it creates a “glitch in their Matrix” that causes them to re-asses the way they run their life.
If Jesus word’s in Matthew 20 are true (which I have no doubt that they are), then count me as one who wants to “be great”.
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