CHAIN OF EVENTS

RED and Yellow, Blue and Green.

Each linked together, they form a chain..  These little plastic links are simple to connect.  A two-year-old learns small motor skills while putting them together to make a necklace.  A five and nine-year-old learn how much faster the other is when they race to link each together in a common color.  Abby takes yellow and Brooklyn red.  Abby learns competing with someone older than her means she has a handicap with finger dexterity.  Brooklyn learns speed is of the essence to win, but technique is also valuable.  Keeping her fingers close to the table, picking up a link with one hand while holding the chain still gives her an advantage over her little sister.

But put a 13-year-old competitive cousin in the mix of things and another "connection" occurs.  As I've said before, Abby idolizes her older cousin, Jordy.  Jordy is in the game to win the game. He takes no delight in losing.  However, I observed him one day sitting with little Abby linking the colorful links together at a bit slower pace.  He was allowing Abby time to put more links on her chain at a faster rate than himself.  He knew he could win if he wanted to, but felt it necessary to allow Abby to win that round.  Some might say that is building a false positive in Abby.  Jordy says it's making her feel better.

Jordy has the gift of mercy.  He has the ability needed to compete with kids much older than himself and win.  His competitive spirit catapults him into a league of his own in many cases.  For the most part, it doesn't matter to Jordy if a person is younger than he is when he competes with them.  The aim of the game is to win.  He has the philosophy that if you want to stay in the game, then you have to play in the game and do what it takes to be better at the game than anyone else.  No matter your age difference.

But here, Jordy decided it was important to let Abby have a moment in the sun.  Here, he offered mercy where he could have delivered might and power.  His tenderness of heart overrided his need to show his unrelenting superiority.  In doing so, he put his own wants aside.  He didn't need to win.

I wonder sometimes if in our quest to be the best at all we do, we step on the weaker links of the chain God placed us in.  I wonder if our superiority in education, in experience, or spirituality actually puts us above another in a contest of self-centered ambition or self-glorification..  While we scramble to put ourselves on the top rung, do we step on the lower rung with disregard to their importance?  Do we even see the need for the weaker link in a chain?  Or are we so ennamored with our own prowess and superiority that we ignore the weaker link without regard to their need for encouragement, validation and affirmation?

Is it a false hope Jordy instilled in Abby?  I don't think so.  Later that day, I watched as she could easily have completed a task of setting the table on her own.  But she let her younger cousin, HayJae "help" where no help was needed.  And when they both wanted on the trampoline, Abby held back jumping so HayJae could jump, too.   Amazing what a few colored links can teach us when we are willing to see the connection in God's chain of events.  [copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2007]