Gifted players come from every destination, wear all kinds of labels, and are the true keys to success. As fans of special sports, we know their numbers and stats, where they went to school, their physical ailments, social lives, and how they match up with the opposing team. If you are in London, you can get the odds of the player scoring the first goal or committing the first foul. Usually we know who the special guys are. Every once in a long while we are surprised – someone we least expected puts his or her gift out on full display!
I know how my interactions will happen today. Knowing the people, understanding their values and priorities, watching their interactions with other people, and seeking to understand behavior patterns, allows one to anticipate the future. The trouble with the approach that we all use is when we hold on to it our own views our actions become racist, biased, chauvinist, and bigoted! It is clearly not a pretty picture! If we shed our preconceptions, we find ourselves out in the open, ready for the surprise player!
Everyday I find someone who touches my life in ways I could never anticipate. The kindness of a total stranger who lets me go ahead while shopping, the store clerk who suggests going to a web site rather than purchase the item in the store because it will be cheaper, and the friend who stops to listen to my problems when his life is stressed to the max. I wonder about their motives, and God-like actions.
“When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation.” (Romans 2.14)
We are children of God by birth. We are secret weapons of God in this game we call life. We can be the surprise players in making life heaven on earth. We are God’s gifted friends.
