Do you ever get the feeling that
somebody is trying to tell you something? Like somebody up above is sending you a message? Sometimes I get that
feeling, but unfortunately it can take me a while to catch on.
I recently played in a golf
tournament to raise money for the Fullerton College Baseball Team. My Halo Baseball Club shares the same field, so a lot
of us ballplayers sign up to support this cause. I had the privilege of playing
with one of my teammates, Danny, who has been a close friend of mine for 10
years. I have always admired Danny because he is such a great baseball player, but
more importantly because he is such a great Christian guy. Humble and kind are
the best words I can use to describe him. He never brings up the fact that he
has won an MSBL World Series Ring, but instead focuses on finding ways to
praise his teammates. Me, on the other hand, I almost always find some way to
bring up the story of how I won a World Series Ring, even if the people
listening don’t even like baseball. Sure, I mention how practice and prayer
were the keys to my success, but humility is obviously not my strong point.
Last week I was searching for
some corporate books at my office when I came across something unusual, a
military sword and picture. I had
forgotten that I those items were at my office and I’m not even sure why I
brought them there. But the picture of my Dad in his USMC dress white uniform
and his beautiful military sword brought back a flood of memories. My Dad was
the humblest, kindest person I have ever known. Even though he won the Navy/Marine
Corps Medal of Valor, he never once talked about it, preferring to listen to
others and/or give them the shirt off his back if they needed it.
On Friday I received Sports
Illustrated in the mail with a picture of Mike Trout on the cover. Mike is the best player on the LA Angels and the best
player in all of baseball. In his first five years, he has finished 1st
or 2nd in the MVP voting every single year. Nobody else has ever even
come close. But Mike doesn’t talk about that fact, instead he takes the time to
sign hundreds of autographs before and after every game. He doesn’t seek the
spotlight and in fact, he declined to talk about himself in the Sports
Illustrated article, so the writers had to get most of their information for
the story from scouts and coaches. In 2015 Mike heard about a family that had a
fire in their house at Christmastime. On his own he purchased gifts for them
and dropped them by their house, even though they were strangers. Had the family
not said anything about it, nobody would have ever known. Mike low-keyed it
like he always does.
After thinking about these
three events, it began to dawn on me that somebody was sending me a message
about humility and kindness. So I
looked up the meaning of those words in the original Hebrew language and
discovered that those words carried an added idea that the English words don’t.
They both refer to an act of grace and a person who is “useful”. Apparently, humility
and kindness are much more than adjectives. For some people, they are a way of
life!
Humility doesn’t mean you think less of yourself,
but that you think of yourself less.
~ Max Lucado
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