If you thought that this fan of all things Tar Heel would write about the UNC victory over Duke in basketball last night, you would be incorrect...
HA! Are you kidding??? Of course, I've got to write about it!! So if you despise all things Carolina, just go right ahead and delete this post. I'm apologizing in advance. After all, Duke has beaten the Heels multiple times, and plenty of those losses have been brutal last second victories which have pretty much ripped our Carolina blue hearts out--not that I'm bitter or anything.
Not to mention Duke has won multiple national championships, and Coach K is obviously a great recruiter of freshman phenoms, oops, I mean coach. And let's face it: Duke is gonna beat the Heels many more times, because they're a truly great team. In fact, March 9th will unfortunately be here before we know it, and the Blue Devils will be looking for revenge. They very may well get it, and I'm bracing myself now for it.
The point is, Duke absolutely and deservedly can always hold it's Blue Devil head up high. (I won't comment on that choice of a mascot...but a devil??)
I promise not to gloat...although for the record, just so we know, UNC beat the unbeatable Dookies 88 to 72. (One more disclaimer: I really do apologize to my many dear friends who have gone to Duke and love Duke--there is so much to admire about your outstanding school...and it is modeled after Princeton, so there's also that to love.)
But seriously, I simply wanted to share one little incident that Adam Lucas wrote about in his wonderful article about the game (okay "wonderful" from the perspective of Carolina fans). Luuuuuuuuke Maye (no, fans aren't booing him, they're yelling his name) had just had an incredible game, scoring 30 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. Lucas pointed out that Maye was the first Tar Heel in 56 years to do that in a Carolina-Duke game. Billy Cunningham is the only other UNC player who ever did that. Not bad company. But here are Lucas' words--
"In the cramped Cameron Indoor Stadium locker room, Maye sought out Shea Rush, a walk-on who was dressed and about to walk outside to see his mother. Maye stopped him.
'Hey, man,' Maye said, before he went and talked to the dozens of cameras who wanted his thoughts, 'thanks for rebounding for me.'
Rush just shook his head. During pregame warmups, instead of getting up his own shots, Rush makes it a point to rebound for Maye, then fire crisp, game-speed passes back to him so Maye can get in a rhythm. Now, here was Luke Maye, after scoring 30 at Duke, taking time to thank Shea Rush for his pregame warmup passes.
No one does that. No one.
Rush just shook his head. 'He's a special guy,' he said of Maye.
The night's superstar shook the hand of the player who never took off his warmup shirt. To watch the interaction was to see two equals, just two members of a team, everyone doing anything they possibly could do to win a game. Luke Maye got 30 and 15. Shea Rush helped, and even if no one else noticed--Luke Maye did."
Such a small thing in the big scheme of things, right? But it's the seemingly insignificant things in life that often reveal the monumental things. Reading that story about said it all for me--because our character--and who we are when we don't think anyone else is watching--is infinitely more important than any accolades we might garner or wins we might enjoy. And the character Luke displayed in that simple little gesture evidenced sweet humility.
Humility is such a beautiful quality, isn't it? G.K. Chesterton once explained that "we become taller when we bow, " and Tim Keller says, "the essence of humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself; it is thinking of myself less."
True humility means knowing it's not all about me or my performance. It's not about my agenda or my success or my plans. It's not about my greatness or glory. It's all about the ways and will, the greatness and glory, of Almighty God. And it's about loving and caring for other people, taking the low place, and seeking to serve rather than to be served.
To develop true humility, we must take the focus off ourselves and instead fix our eyes on Jesus, basking in His beauty, greatness, and splendor. Humility means our aim is life is to glorify God, not ourselves, and to love and serve those the Lord has placed in our paths.
This quality of humility has been in the forefront of my mind recently as our Bible study has recently been studying the life of Paul in the book of Acts. What an example of humility he was. Paul was extraordinarily gifted--brilliant and well-educated--and he was mightily used by God in far-reaching and astounding ways. How easy it would've been for Paul to be proud.
Yet instead, Paul modeled and lived out incredible humility. He surely never got over the utterly undeserved and amazing grace of God in choosing to "save a wretch like me." Because the grizzled old apostle was singularly focused on His Savior and on sharing God’s gift of salvation with the world, he was a humble, self-forgetful man who brought glory to God.
Boy, in our world of instagram and facebook (do we really need to know every single detail of your perfectly presented life?), of spoiled celebrities and overpaid sports stars, of self-promotion and selfishness, of loud-mouthed boasting and vitriol, isn't it beautiful to witness examples of humility? To glimpse folks who walk into a room, and instead of an attitude that says, "Look at me!," they declare, "Look at you!"
How thankful I am for the ultimate example of humility in the Lord Jesus, who "though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil.2:6-8) That's humility...and that's the One who came to die the death we deserved, and rose to new life in order to give us the gift of salvation and eternal life.
So, yep, this Carolina fan is mighty thankful for the example of Luke Maye...but I'm infinitely more grateful for the One who relinquished the unimaginable glories of heaven and came down--so far down--in order to save the likes of me...and you. Might we bow down in humble worship and then go out and share His love with others.
To God be the glory.
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