The Other Guys

A few months ago, I was at an event where several organizations were given a panel opportunity for an anticipating audience to promote their cause.

Adoption.

Although the stream of passion that flowed from the voices behind the panel were the same, their methods were as varied as the colors of their shirts, the style of their logo and the catchy tag line from each of their brochures.

Basically we were all there for the same reason, but the competition for first place, or “best in show” seemed to out weigh our reasoning for existence.

During the presentation “the other guys” set out to debate every one of our processes, also pitting themselves against all of the other teams.  “Well, we do it this way instead.”  And, “If you come see us, we will show you how we can help you the best.”

“Yellow is better than blue.  Because who wants to be blue anyway?”

Like that song, “Anything you can do – I can do better!…No you can’t – Yes I can!”

I just wanted to stand up and yell, “Look ‘Mr. Yellow,’ I know you have a different title on your methods, and the monogram logo on your perfect color polo shirt may stand out a wee-bit more in the crowd but we are all batting for the same team here. We are in this together to raise awareness for the #1 most important individual here….the “waiting child.”

It was a rude awaking for me as I witnessed the inner workings of the adoptive world. Unfortunately, the behind the scenes process of choosing how and “who” will help waiting families connect with waiting children is not exactly as smooth as the jazz melodies playing along behind the heart captivating images on the commercials.

Shocking.

In that revelation moment, I thought also about how the church world, the financial world, and probably every other world are as flawed as the community of representatives I witnessed on the panel  that night.

I feel like the corporate evangelist in me wants to rise up and take the hand of our competitors “the other guys” and ask them “what can we do to help you”  or “how can we do this better, together?”

The church evangelist in me has been wanting to do the same thing for years.  I’ve witnessed countless times where the “mission” seemed to get lost in our competitive methods.  I’ve been to many events where much like our panel event, we lost sight of our main purpose:  Jesus.

My frustration melted down a little the following day, when I received an email from a co-worker.  Someone from another organization, was donating a wonderful collection of itemes to us, the other guys.  It was a hugely unsual, yet noble act of kindness.  I responded to the exciting news with my thoughts,  ’I wish more people in our world could become like this person, with mentalities of ‘what can I do to help you’ – instead of ‘look how better we are than you.”

My hope was also increasingly restored last month watching countless recovery efforts join hands during the tornado disaster in Alabama. How profit and non-profit came together in unison to help.  It was a beautiful site!

I believe there may be a major shifting in our culture moving away from the various reinventions of the wheel.  It seems as if the generations coming up are not about as much ‘look what I can do differently’, but rather, ‘look how we can help each other become better.’

And my prayer lately has been that this mentality would spread throughout our church, the Bride of Christ, that we would tear down walls of separation, competition and sheep counting and become one body, serving one cause.

My Rdio has a playlist named ‘World Mover’ – with songs that speak to me, like One: