When
was young, I was fascinated by Evel Knievel.
In fact, my brother and I often imitated him by building
ramps and
jumping our bikes off them. There
was
only one problem. After
each new ramp
was completed, someone had to be brave enough to give it a try to
prove that
the jump could be done without getting hurt.
“Who is going first?” was an important question. Once someone showed that it
was not that
scary, then everyone would try it, but someone had to go first.
Now
that I am older, I am even more convinced that going first is a
gift. Here are two areas
where it makes a huge
difference.
Go
first with your mistakes. We
live in a
world where people usually clean-up or cover up. In other words, we work hard
to hide our
problems and pretend that they do not exist.
Unfortunately, doing so only creates more problems. The more we pretend, the more
isolated we are
and the harder it is to get over our struggles.
Contrary
to that, the Bible encourages us to be real with one another. James 5:16 says, “Confess
your sins to each
other”. When we go first
and talk about
our issues, it does two things. First,
it allows others to help us carry our burden and to pray for us. Secondly, it gives others an
opportunity to be
real about their own circumstances and fears.
Confession draws us together.
When we admit that we are not perfect, then we can start to
help and
support one another.
Next,
consider the blessing of going first with kindness. In most situations, it is not
hard to figure
out the kind thing to do. It
is obvious. Sadly, many
people hold back from offering
kindness because they are worried that someone will take advantage
of
them. However, kindness
tends to breed
kindness. In fact,
scripture points out
that, through his Spirit, the kindness of God should produce that
same sort of
kindness in us (Galatians 5:22-23).
You
can
be a difference maker in your world by simply going first and
giving people an
example to follow. Once
people are shown
a better way, they often follow along.
It
will
take some courage, but going first can change everything. After all, Jesus went first
with us.
“While we were still
sinners,
Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)
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