This past Saturday night was about as good as it gets for me in watching sports. I got to watch two friends executing in their sport at the highest level. I flipped between watching my friend Ray Allen and the Boston Celtics put a whipping on the Miami Heat on ABC and seeing Kasey Kahne leading the most laps in the #4 Red Bull Toyota at the Southern 500 on Fox. I've been fortunate to have several friends who either are or were formerly professional athletes but I'd never been able to flip between watching two of them at the same time. I have to admit that I went to bed Saturday right proud of myself for being so connected to such famous, successful and amazing people.
On Sunday morning I got up and took the family to church. We'd been in Sunday School for about 5 minutes when God hit me up side my head with a 2 X 4 of truth and perspective. Two stories were told in our sharing time prior to the lesson that put some perspective on what being an amazing person really is all about. (I will share the stories here with first name only to preserve privacy)
My friend Robin teaches 4 year old kindergarten in Irmo, SC. She had shared with us some weeks previously about a girl in her class whose mother was in the midst of a very complicated pregnancy that was going to require her to be hospitalized in Pennsylvania up until she gave birth. She was going to have to be away from her family for several months. Robin updated us on the situation Sunday. She first shared that all was going as well as could be expected medically under the circumstances. Then she shared that the family member who had been caring for the girl in her mother's absence was being forced to return home. There had been some uncertainty as to what would happen because the child's father had a demanding work schedule and could not afford to lose his job. Finally, she told us that she and her husband had decided that they would take the little girl in until her mother returns from the hospital. She and her husband asked the group to pray for them and their children as they prepared for this opportunity to show the love of Christ to these people in tremendous need.
Before anyone could really comment on this another Brother asked that we would be in prayer for another class member named Chris because of what he had done on Friday. Many in the class didn't know what Chris had done so it had to be recounted for everyone. Chris is active in prison ministry. Over the past year, he had befriended a man on death row who had been found guilty of three murders, the last of which had actually occurred in prison. As I understood it, Chris had a hand in leading this man to Christ. The man had been scheduled for execution Friday evening for his crimes and as part of the preparation that does along with that, he got to pick one person to come spend the last 10 hours of his life with him in his cell. The man chose Chris. Chris spent from 8AM to 6PM on Friday with his friend and didn't leave his side until they came to take him to the death chamber.
As our class secretary wound up the sharing time with a prayer and I stood to teach, the Lord convicted me about my misplaced pride from Saturday night and I had to confess it to our class.
Now I don't want it to seem like I'm implying anything negative about Ray and Kasey. They are both humble, hard working, charitable and worthy of admiration for the excellence they display in their fields. But what I was struck with so powerfully was the immense nature of what these two people right in my very own Sunday School class were doing and how easy it is to get caught up in pride about the temporary and worldly things we do instead of rightly focusing on the things we do that count for eternity.
I'm so thankful to know and serve with people like Robin and Chris. They are truly amazing.
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