Greatness

There are several things rolling around in my mind right now, but I believe I should concentrate on one central thought. Greatness and How to Achieve it...

When my daughter or Brother-In-Law wind up with a couple of extra tickets I get to go to a truck or Indy Car Race. Last night was the truck race at TMS. Sandy and I got tickets (not free mind you) and were in attendance at the race. Now anyone other than North Texans may not recognize what TMS is, but the Texas Motor Sport Raceway pretty much covers the topic. Really a big place with several tens of thousands of fans (plus my wife and me) watching the trucks scream around the track. (It was less than half full for this race, but will be SRO for the NASCAR race Sunday. But on the positive side, all the attendees will at least get to hear a Prayernouncement that day. Probably upwards of 120,000 people there. That is a mega church for sure - but I digress...) A pickup truck modified for speeds of upwards of 200 mph will make a lot of noise. Add up 31 of those trucks and you have a whole lot of noise. A headset is a necessity. One with broadcasting capability is a plus. You get to hear the race chatter, FM Stations, etc. But that is an extra too... A really interesting or funny part of this whole thing is that people will spend $100's to see a race like that and watch the huge TV screens in the infield. I must confess, the head set I had on was tuned to 100.1 KERA Classic radio, but that's another story. But that isn't the gist of this blog either. I read an article or two in the morning Star-Telegram about the drivers. The thing that sticks out in my mind is the single-mindedness they demonstrate in the conversations and actions the articles described. For instance, Kyle Bush - a 23 year old baby (sorry anyone who is under 30 reading this - but at my age - and I'm not quite to the Geezer stage yet, but you all are really young...!) is going to race all three races this weekend. He came in second in the truck race last night, will race in the Busch Series (not named for him but the beer...) today and the NASCAR Chase for the Cup race tomorrow. That has to be grueling! Given that he is young, healthy, strong and dedicated has, no doubt, an impact on his ability to compete that often. But he must be a pooped puppy come Monday morning! It was said of him in this article that he would race 365 days a year if there was some place to race. Now that is dedication.

Then there was the article about Jimmy Johnson. The general trend of the article is that it is difficult to "hate" someone as "nice" as JJ. (I just made up that nickname...) But it seems that although he is the points leader (again) in this year's Chase, (he won the last two Chases) he is respected and admired by everybody, including his rivals. The writer of the article cited "The Intimidator" (Dale Earnheart Sr.) as being only one of those things. You can figure out which one. But the real point of the article was the segment where the interviewer was talking to Jimmy about his sleep habits. He sleeps like a baby. He didn't always but is gaining on it. One comment Jimmy made was "I don't need that stuff rolling around in my head" meaning that the extraneous stuff of life. Petty grievances, TV news (same category as petty grievances) etc. only serve to distract him from the task at hand -- Winning Races!

That got me thinking about what it is that makes for "Greatness". What is it anyway? Could be several things like Opportunity, Personality, Energy Level, Talent and Intelligence, Dedication to a Task - what was that - dedication to a task? I often think that Christians - Believers - Born Againers - whatever you choose to call them/us - are seldom dedicated to a task. Any task. Especially the Living the Life task. That that task takes dedication is something many seem to think is not a requirement. The idea that once you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, everything becomes easy. Such things as making "Christian Decisions" and "Living the Life" are slam dunks. After all, isn't Christ living in us? Some will walk around thinking they have a halo over their head and living a positive christian life is what they are doing. Not necessarily so. In order to develop a Spiritual mind set or Christian World View one must set aside time for reading, introspection, Prayer, Bible Study (yes, study) and so on if the "benefits" of spirituality are to be realized. We are admonished to eschew sinning and cling to goodness. How does one do that? By energizing and disciplining yourself to doing those sorts of things. Now I don't expect every Christian to be categorized as being "Great". Indeed we are not to strive for greatness in itself. But some in the Christian experience have achieved greatness. Some historic preachers, reformers, politicians, sports figures are well known to the general public. It seems that they were able to put dedication to a "worldly" task in proper juxtaposition with Living the Christian Life. But the things that make people great in only the World's view of things like NASCAR Racing, are those who dedicate themselves entirely to the pursuit of greatness. Greatness in a very narrow context - that thing in which they excell.

Why don't we Christians seem to do that very much? Dedicate ourselves to a task that is. Maybe we do but I don't recognize it. Maybe after all is said and done, we are great. The smallest child or least of "The Kingdom" may consider us great in their eyes. After all, greatness is in the eye of the beholder. Anything someone can do better than I can qualifies that person for a degree of greatness in my eyes. Whether it be NASCAR Racing, Radio Preaching, Mega Church Pastor, whatever it is, the person who does something better than I can do, qulaifies said person for a degree of greatness in my eyes. Still, there is the fact of dedication. I believe many if not all of us who name the name of Jesus could do with a small to extra large helping of dedication. What do you think?