In this video you can see clearly that the initial response is of ridiculing and labeling. Most of us, while watching, consciously or subconsciously, laughed at the crazy 1st guy. Comes in the 2nd guy, who actually starts dancing mockingly. But then this 3rd guy jumps in and he seems to be better off and is more into having fun and enjoying the idea of dancing in front of everyone. It is this 3rd guy, some social psychologists say, who turned the whole perspective around, from something which was ridiculous to a new trend, that excited many people, who wanted to be part of it, and jumped in.
Are you a helper or a strainer?
We need to admit that not many of us are like the 3rd guy. In the best cases, we're not better than the 2nd guy, being half-heartedly in.
Do you remember the meetings when you came up with a very nice idea, but found difficulty in getting initial support from the rest of your team members? Do you remember those times when you always got a negative response from that single same person, always negating and disagreeing with you, no matter how great an idea you have?
We do not have many "3rd guys" among us, and not many are found in the Bible. On the contrary, there were many naggers and difficult people. Job was troubled by his friends, Elijah ran away and hid himself, even Paul faced a lot of troubling people.
One person who was a great 3rd guy was Barnabas. This guy always amazed me. But, be careful, he was not the only one. Do you remember the couple Achilles and Priscilla? They are one of the greatest couples mentioned in the New Testament. They were supportive of Paul when he was in his worst troubles and they even took in Appollos, instead of bashing him out and telling him that his "ways" were false; on the contrary, they built him up and taught him further in the right path.
It's that spirit, and being fully aware, doing it fully for the sake of building the "other" person. Yet, be careful, people will sense you're a fake if you're doing it out of obligation. It's the spirit that Barnabas had, the couple had, Mother Teresa had, the Pope John Paul II had.
Nurturing that spirit is the challenge.
Raffi Chilingirian
