Everyone Else

While I watched the 2010 Olympics I noticed that there were tears in the eyes of the medal winners and I also saw tears in the eyes of those who had not won, the ones the announcer described as “everyone else”. That started me thinking. My kids always said it could get scary when I started thinking. God had created many, many more “everyone else’s” than winners. If it wasn’t for the rest of us there could never be a winner!
I realized the brightest light on the tree would be just another light if all the lights shown the same. Also if the dimmest light were the only light that hadn’t blown out, IT would be the brightest light on the tree. If the world had no “everyone else” or “everything else” it would be a boring world, there would be nothing to compare to. I am important, you are important; you have to be proud that each of us is an “everyone else.”
Just what does it require and what does it mean to be that “everyone else”? It means that when you see a rock in the road ahead you don’t have to panic and try to find the shortest way around. We, you and I can take the time to look at that rock, to study it closely. It could be a beautiful stone-it could have a vein of precious metal. It even could be an uncut diamond! Most of all we have the time to wonder why God put that stone in our path in the first place. Could it have been HIS answer to one of our prayers?
In my Book it says “God gave each of us a talent and if we use this talent, more talents will come our way”. It says nothing about me forcing others to use my talents and then be judged by my interpretation of them. With your talent you may be able to run faster, jump higher, or have more money than me. Just remember God gave ME a talent too and I’m going to use my talent the way that I understand God’s words coming from my heart tells me to use them. You must understand that winning means very little to me because I am an “everyone else” you must judge your life by me, not me on thee!
Being an everyone else also means we can change our direction of travel or even our minds in the shortest of time, it means we can admit it when we know we are wrong, or even cross our fingers and say we were wrong even though we know in our heart we were right.
It means that on those special days we can take the time to look to the sky and picture animals floating in the clouds.
It means that we can feel the quiet call of a beautiful flower that God has placed there just for us to see and to smell the fragrance that is there just for you and me.
It means that two of us can share a hug and maybe share a heart beat or two as well.
It means God has given us the time to hold a hurting persons hand and listen to those hurts.
It means, I think maybe this is the most important part of being an “everyone else” that you no longer have to prove yourself to yourself.
It means you now have time to: be yourself, to be happy with yourself. Yes, even to love yourself. There is no longer apologies needed you and I know that we are the way God made us.
I am happy with me! I now realize that I am a true “everyone else” and that I don’t have to compare myself to another living soul. I don’t have to worry about “what would others think”. I can march to my own drumbeat and apologize to no one. I can think my own thoughts. I now know who I am, I am an “everyone else” and it feels great.
I never had dreams of being a super star. Being the winner never rated as being my number one goal. But, think about this; I never suffered the agony of defeat either. What has been my goal in life? I only want to be just Bob “an everyone else”. I never had a desire to win, step on or belittle someone else to make me look good. I am the way my Father in Heaven created me, I know He is happy with me or he would change me. That is why I’m happy with me, just Bob.