As participants of the Y National meet, you put yourselves in a pretty elite group. Collectively, we have left behind thousands and thousands of teammates, many of whom have looked to us at some point with a degree of envy and a wont to be with us.

Sometimes then it can be easy to find ourselves in the position where we fell self-righteous and proud of our accomplishments, especially with the expectations of other upon and encouraging us.

However, this proud and haughty attitude often leads to failure in the end. Our desire to care for others should be even greater than our desire to be honored.

The consequences of caring create a sense of worth for the person who receives your interest. At times it will seem as though you are sacrificing your own happiness for the sake of others, but the reward comes in due time and in bountiful amounts.

When we successfully employ caring, the harvest includes the other Y characteristics of honesty, respect, and responsibility, as well as faith, patience, love, endurance, suffering, and humility. Each of these have noble purposes, and as you practice each, the others will grow and prosper.

Recently, our coach proposed something that I considered radical and unjust. Frank suggested that we, as a national team, invite swimmers who meet every expectation that we teammates have except time that surpasses a qualifying standard. At the time I was adamantly against it – this was my meet and my own experience – not one that I wanted to share with anyone. Then I was challenged to think from the viewpoint of those we left behind. I was asked to care for their situation. Since then my desire to see those swimmers satisfied outweighs my own selfish wants.

Paul, who wrote to the Phillippians while he was in jail, showed care and joy for his brothers while he himself was in misery. He wrote “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceits, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

The next time you find yourself in a situation where you could be the benefitor or the benefactor, I urge and challenge you to humble yourself and choose the most caring route – you will find that it is the most beneficial.

Let us pray.

Dear God,

I thank You for this week and the wonderful experiences that you have provided. I thank You that we can humble ourselves before You and that Your care for us far exceeds any emotion we can return. I pray that tonight we will have a fabulous finish to the meet, and that Your love will guide us tonight and continue to encourage us to love and care for one another.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

Jenny Grover,

Boise YMCA Swim Team,

Boise, Idaho