All For One — One For All

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Day 286 of Photo Inspirations — All for One; One for All
Yesterday, my photo inspiration was the circle of African children who came together as a whole. They ran together for the prize — sharing equally in their WIN.  In their language, that’s called “UBUNTU,‘I am because we are.”

I, often, impose words to my photo inspirations and when I do, I look for the font that will help emphasize the words’ meaning.  In that photo’s case, I picked one that I thought looked somewhat “African” in my mind’s eye.  Not until I looked at it, after the fact, did I realize the i’s in that font, even though it’s the upper case lettering, is still a lower case “i”.

That made me think about this concept of being a little i in life when it comes to needing to have it my way, or what i want or what pleases me.  It’s what WE ARE together.  WE share.  WE love.  WE serve.  WE give.  WE go for what’s right together.  WE WIN together.  The concept of WE is so much better than i.

Then as I thought about this concept, I thought about the BIG WIN, that Martin Luther King Jr. had when he joined hands with others in the Selma-to-Montgomery, AL voting rights march that began on March 7, 1965, with 600 protesters being beaten by law enforcement officers on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge, but the march finally ended peacefully in Montgomery on March 25, 1965, with 25,000 people converging at the state Capitol steps to hear Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The march led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which opened voting booths to millions of black people in the South and ended “all-white” governments. Thanks be to God!!!  Look what “All for One, and One for All!” can do.

The scripture reading for yesterday’s message at church was from Mark 10:43 where Jesus was straightening out James and John who were asking to sit on His left and right in heaven.  REALLY?? How stingy could they get?  They were thinking about their place in line.  They wanted to win the BIG prize of “Getting to sit next to Jesus”, instead of taking the attitude of “Let’s ALL join hands together and and WIN together!”  Jesus set them straight.  He said, “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant”   Those guys didn’t get that this isn’t a competition.  Everyone who serves Jesus will be given a seat of honor in heaven.  WOW — instead of being the master, he encouraged them to be servants.

Today, I’m thinking of ways that we can join our hands and hearts together to be a part of something greater than i — greater than my 4 and no more — greater than “What’s in it for me?”  What if we began to pray and humble ourselves to become servants that live a life of “What can i do for you? What can i do for the cause?  What can i do for the team?  What can i do for others that helps them to win?”   All for One — One for All!