The Background

I've retired from the WCS football chain gang but I did put my sixteen years in! Here is proof that I once roamed the sidelines at home games! It is from October 23, 2011.

Marcus put me on his Facebook profile recently. Well, actually he did so without recognizing the fact that I was a part of his page. You see, Marcus Williams is a very good football player at Westbury Christian School. This past Friday evening, he ran for 130 yards on only sixteen carries and scored a touchdown while helping lead the Wildcats to a big Homecoming victory over Lutheran South. Overcoming an early season injury, Marcus has had a terrific senior year and is averaging over seven yards per carry, a tremendous average for a running back at the high school level, or at any level! As you see in the FACEBOOK picture above, he is running to daylight, as Vince Lombardi used to put it, and maybe even for a touchdown. And there, in the background, holding one end of the first down chains, is me!

I doubt Marcus, a very personable and bright young man, would have ever noticed my presence in that shot if I had not brought it to his attention. The truth is, I have seen more WC S home games in the fourteen year history of the program than any one else, only missing one contest holding the markers and that was for a revival meeting at our congregation. There are students who will go to every home game and never notice me or my partners on the sideline. (This year's other crew members: Kayla Jones, Casey Lankford, Andrew McLeod.) In five home games this year, we have not been called once on the field for a measurement. Still, the chain crew is a vital part of each football game, even if we are sometimes almost invisible to the crowd. And that's how we should be. If we're noticed, it might be because we are not doing our job, a job whose only material remuneration is a t-shirt. The focus should be on the young men on the field, the young ladies who cheer, and the kids who play their band instruments in the stands.

We want be noticed, don't we? We want to be recognized for our part in whatever is going on. I find it interesting the Scriptures tell us very little about what the majority of the apostles did while they were with Jesus. The focus of the Gospels among The Twelve is on Peter, James, and John, and at the end, Judas. But the daily contributions of the others had to be significant to make up the core of the handful of men who would turn the world upside down. We know James and John- and their mom- clamored for some prominence; we don't hear that from Bartholomew or Matthew or Simon the Zealot...or their mothers. In different facets of our lives, we are called to different roles based on need and ability and our willingness to be involved. Sometimes we run the ball and score touchdowns and sometimes we do all our running holding metal sticks outside of the field of play. And sometimes, we just might show up on Facebook! Let's hear it for Marcus!

Applicable quote of the day:
"Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, 'Make me feel important.' Never forget this message when working with people."
Mary Kay Ash

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com