Hey Grace'rs,
Last week we began looking at the humble heart. We saw how outrage has become the soup de jour of social media, and much of our lives. That outrage is the opposite of a humble heart and is the cause of much of the anger and discord we see in our country today. 

Last week, as Jan and I were watching one of our new favorite shows, Ted Lasso, I heard a compelling definition of a humble heart.

Ted Lasso is a College Football coach hired to coach a professional soccer team in London. (What he doesn’t know is that he was hired to fail.) He’s a bit of a goofball, labeled a Hillbilly by some, but he has a big heart.

In this particular scene the bully of the show, the former owner of the team, is trying to weasel his way back into ownership. So Ted challenges him to a game of darts. Ted throws a few practice darts and he’s not very good. The former owner takes up the challenge.

Ted is losing badly and has 3 darts left. He needs three miracle shots. Before he throws dart #1 he starts to tell a story:

Guys have always underestimated me my entire life. I never really understood why. Then one day I saw a billboard with a quote by Walt Whitman: Be curious, not judgmental. As I’m driving it hits me, all those fellas that used to belittle me…not a single one of them was curious. They thought they had everything figured out. They judged everything. I realized that their underestimating of me…who I was had nothing to do with it. If they were curious they would have asked questions, questions like, Have you played a lot of darts, Ted? Which I would have answered, Yes, sir! Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my dad from age 8 to age 16 when he passed away. 

With that Ted says, “Barbecue Sauce” and with his third dart hits the bullseye and wins the game.

A humble heart is a curious heart. Rather than writing people off, it takes the time to listen. To understand. A curious heart is open to learning something new. To seeing an issue from a different perspective. It may not end up agreeing with or even liking the other person, but the curious heart will have humanized the other person…validating that person by hearing him or her out.

A humble heart recognizes it doesn’t know everything and is curious enough to learn. 

Followers of Jesus, by nature, should be curious rather than outraged. For no one challenges what we think we know more than Jesus. And no one is more fascinating than he is.

(If you would like to watch the Ted Lasso clip you can do so here with the warning that there are a few R rated words.)
Spirit of the Living God
Fall afresh on me…

Spirit of the Living God
Fall afresh on me…

Melt me
Mold me
Fill me 
Use me

Spirit of the Living God
Fall afresh on me.
Tim
Tim Wright
Pastor, Community of Grace Lutheran Church
10561 W. Pinnacle Peak Rd. (107th Ave. & Pinnacle Peak)
Peoria, AZ 85383
Office Phone: 623-572-0050 | Emergency Phone: 480-457-0253