A lifetime ago,
I worked as a part time sports writer. I enjoyed my first career choice
immensely. Being at the low end of the totem pole required me to take the worst
stories that nobody wanted. We all have to start somewhere. I covered things I
could care less about, bowling, fishing and hunting to be exact. One of my
assignments was covering a team with a long losing streak.
I got the job of
covering the Farwell basketball team. Farwell started the season on a 56 game
losing streak. My job was to be there at game 56 till they broke the streak. I
was apart of every agonizing loss making about $7 an hour covering this team. I
went to areas in Michigan I didn’t know existed. I got lost a couple of times,
ended up stranded in a blizzard with another sports writer (Matt Mowery, an
amazing sports writer for the Oakland
Press, check out his stuff it’s amazing) as loss after loss came long. If
you want to see one of the stories…
I covered the
team until game 75 when they tied the unofficial state record. It was crushing,
after the game trying to get interviews from the players was brutal, nobody
wanted to talk and that includes me. $7 an hour is not worth writing about
devastations on kid’s faces. Yet sometimes it takes being the lowest of lows to
have the greatest of highs.
Paul shares with
us a chunk of his life in Ephesians 3:7-8…
“I became a
servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working
of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this
grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ.”
Paul was willing
to become less. Paul was willing to do the lowest of lows to share Jesus with
people. Paul states he was not great and lower then all of the Lord’s people,
but he did what he felt God calling him to do. Paul was humble, not thinking of
himself as better then others but as less. How often in life do we think (Even subconsciously)
that we are better then others? In order to share his mission of sharing Jesus
with everyone, Paul knew he had to be humbled.
Sometimes it
takes us realizing we don’t have all the answers to see the wonderful world. We
need to be humbled. I felt bad for Farwell as every game was humbling for them,
but we can cherish when one succeeds. Game 76, Farwell won. I was gone on my
honeymoon and still called the paper to find out the results. I wish I could
have been there to write the celebration story, but overall I am just glad they
won.
We have to be
willing to become the least to become great. I would not be where I am at today
and the person I am today without humbling moments as covering Farwell during
that time. When you look at your life, do you need to be humble? Do you need to
look at the people around you and try to serve them better? Do you need to
start looking at other people as greater then you? Imagine how the world would
look if we did like Paul did and thought of ourselves as the lowest of lows?
When we put value on others above ourselves life can change for us and for the
ones around us for the better.
