Steve Alessi: Author of Alessi’s Angle, Pastor of Metro Life Church in Miami, Husband of World Renown Worship Leader Mary Alessi and Father of Four.
I
couldn't understand why the little guy was able to push me around the football
field like he did. All I knew was that he was making me look real bad in front
of the other guys and coaches! I guess I wasn't the athlete I thought I was.
Here I am just starting High School and trying to make the Junior Varsity
football team at Coral Park when I quickly discovered that I wasn't the
"little moose" my neighborhood friends told me I was. These other
guys my age were a little tougher than my two sisters and my buddies on the
block, and this football program was a lot more difficult to play than the
touch football we used to play in the street.
Though I
was a pretty strong, little stocky (and cocky I might add) guy, my coaches were
all up in my face because I couldn't block the opposing lineman. Finally, after
getting chewed out for the umpteenth time, one of my coaches came over and said
to me: "Alessi, you're not low enough. Get yourself low and drive through
the guy." Next play, the problem was solved and a great lesson was learned
that has stayed with me since. Success comes in life when we get and keep
ourselves low. I'm referring, of course, to humility.
Borrowing
from Pastor David Arnold of Gulf Coast Worship Center and his Morning Muse, he
writes an article entitled “Head Weight”:
There is a story of the mighty Roman general, Titus, who
conquered Palestine after waging a long and fierce campaign against the Jewish
people. The Jews displayed tremendous courage, and sacrificed greatly in their
defense of their homeland. Titus boasted that he was stronger than the God of
Israel. “If it were
otherwise,” he said, “I
would have never been victorious over the people of Israel.”
Then a voice was heard to say, “Titus, you fool!
You are a slave to vanity! Do you really believe that you are mightier than
God? Why, you will be destroyed by the smallest creature by God.”
Soon afterwards, an insect of microscopic size entered his nostril. It could
not be removed. Infection followed simple irritation, and eventually it
destroyed him.
In India, there is a word for those who are conceited and
proud. They say they have “head weight.”
Paul speaks of those who become “puffed up with
pride” (1 Timothy 3:6). This is all
one word in the Greek. It comes from typhos, “smoke,”
and so literally means “wrap in smoke,”
or “besmoked”
pride that covers him like a fog. It also means “delude,”
which leads to being “filled with
insane arrogance.”
A gourd wound itself around a lofty palm, and in a few
weeks climbed to its very top. “How old are you?”
asked the newcomer. “About a hundred
years.” “About
a hundred years and no taller! Look, I have grown as tall as you in a few days,
that took you years.” “I
know very well,” replied the
palm. “Every summer of my life a gourd
has climbed up around me as proud as you are, and as short-lived as you will
be!”
He ends
with a great quote that serves as a reminder to get and stay low in life. “Conceit is the quicksand of success.”
