Start at Zero

God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. Acts 15:8

When Jamie and I met in college we had an immediate connection although our personalities were, and still are, very different. Jamie wears her feelings and emotions on her shoulders for all to see while mine are inside eating a hole in my stomach. Jamie is never afraid to be loud when encouraging her favorite team or when she notices something that is wrong. If a huge stadium was filled with me on a Saturday in the Fall you would only hear a little bit of clapping and maybe the occasional, “Good job”. Jamie and I met in the spring of 1989 and knew very little about each other and certainly did not know each others friends. Soon after we had begun dating I was approached by another student, who I did not know, that wanted to talk to me about Jamie. I remember I was walking past a dorm and a girl yelled to me from the window of a first floor dorm room. She seemed friendly but I wondered why she was yelling to me from inside a male dorm. Samford University certainly did not allow girls in the boy’s dorm rooms. I walked over and she began to tell me why she believed Jamie and I were wrong for each other. She went on to explain to me that our personalities were opposite and our relationship would never work. I guess we could say she was wrong because on this past April 1st I have known Jamie as my girlfriend or wife for the past 28 years. I never knew why this girl felt the need to correct my life or choose my girlfriend but I am glad I did not listen. Probably helped that she was hanging out of a window in a boy’s dorm but I don’t think I would have listened anyway!

I believe we often let another person’s opinion of someone influence our opinion. We may have met a new person, enjoyed their company, but listened to someone else’s negative opinion and decided to stay away. As a teacher and coach I have to be careful to not make up my mind about a student or player’s character based only on another teacher’s opinion. That is not fair to the student, the player, or to myself. We should all, whether meeting a new friend, a student, a player, or a co-worker begin our opinions at the moment we meet and not from other’s opinions of past events. We should start at zero! We let other people cloud our judgement about a new friend instead of remembering that we all have a past and we all need a friend.

I am thankful that God starts with us at zero. He knows everything about us and yet He still loves us and accepts us, scars and all. What if we told Him we believe in Him, loved Him, and trusted our life to Him but He listened to other’s opinions before He decided. He knows all there is to know about us but still welcomes us. He does not treat the early part of our relationship with Him as a probationary period but rather He gives us full membership. I prayed today to accept people as they are at the moment we meet regardless of the talk I have heard from another person. I may occasionally be let down by a new friend but I believe, in most cases, I will find a friend for life who loves me because I accepted them just as they are at that moment, the way God accepted me.

Chad