Who Is The GOAT?
In the world of athletics, the acronym GOAT stands for Greatest Of All Time! On one particular occasion, the disciples of Jesus were arguing about who was the GOAT among themselves on one of their journeys. Upon settling down at the end of the day, the gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus asked them about their debate:
“What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way, they had argued about who was the greatest. (Mark 9:33)
Their world was no different than ours. However, there is something that drove their ego as well as ours to be number one.
Robert X Cringely, in his book Accidental Empires, tells about the early days of Apple. In the late 1970’s, Apple had grown beyond the point that all the employees knew each other on sight. So, it was decided that, like grown-up companies, they should all have name badges.
As is the corporate way, it was deemed that these badges should be numbered and, as corporate lore decrees, the number assigned would be based on the order in which employees had joined the company.
Cringely writes:
No matter who we are, we want to be number one. We want to be the GOAT. Jesus recognized that in each of the disciples, and yet he does not scold them for that. He recalibrated their thinking by showing them that ambition is a good thing when approached the right way.
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Mark 9:35
Who is the GOAT? The person who is willing to SERVE anyone in need!
See you on Sunday,
Gino Grunberg
“What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way, they had argued about who was the greatest. (Mark 9:33)
Their world was no different than ours. However, there is something that drove their ego as well as ours to be number one.
Robert X Cringely, in his book Accidental Empires, tells about the early days of Apple. In the late 1970’s, Apple had grown beyond the point that all the employees knew each other on sight. So, it was decided that, like grown-up companies, they should all have name badges.
As is the corporate way, it was deemed that these badges should be numbered and, as corporate lore decrees, the number assigned would be based on the order in which employees had joined the company.
Cringely writes:
Steve Wozniak was declared employee number 1. Steve Jobs was number 2, and so on. Jobs didn’t want to be number 2. He didn’t want to be second in anything. Jobs argued that he, rather than Woz, should have the sacred number one since they were co-founders of the company and J came before W in the alphabet. When that plan was rejected. he argued that the number 0 was still unassigned, and since 0 came before 1, Jobs would be happy to take that number. He got it.
No matter who we are, we want to be number one. We want to be the GOAT. Jesus recognized that in each of the disciples, and yet he does not scold them for that. He recalibrated their thinking by showing them that ambition is a good thing when approached the right way.
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Mark 9:35
Who is the GOAT? The person who is willing to SERVE anyone in need!
See you on Sunday,
Gino Grunberg
