Consideration

The actor Bill Murray has often struggled to walk down the street without people wanting to get his phot. Sadly, he confessed that he often acted like a jerk. Murray said.

People would say, “Can I take your picture?” And I would be the kind of [jerk] that would say, “It’s ‘May I take your picture?’” Do you know how many times I said that to no avail? Absolutely no avail. But I wasted a whole lot of time that way, doing stuff to make it acceptable on my stupid terms, trying to make life more like I like it. What a screw head. So now what I do for a living is, I take cellphone photographs. I’m not an actor. I am a donkey that is photographed with people who don’t know how to operate their own cellphone camera. That’s what I do all day long. I don’t regret it. I don’t resent it. This is what I do, and it’s so simple, and I’ve realized how much energy I was wasting resisting it. It was just crazy, and when it finally hit me, I went: Oh, my God, what a jerk. How could you have been a jerk for that long?

Then during the interview Murray started tearing up.

The Comedian Louis CK has a routine in which he jokes about having the impulse to give up his first class airline seat to a soldier. Louis CK says,

[Service men and women] always fly coach. I've never seen a soldier in first class in my life … And every time that I see a soldier on a plane I always think, You know what? I should give him my seat. It would be the right thing to do, it would be easy to do, and it would mean a lot to him … I never have, let me make that clear. I've never done it once … And here's the worst part: I was actually proud of myself for having thought of this. I am such a sweet man. That is so nice of me, to think of doing that and then totally never do it.

In June of 2014 Oscar nominated actress Amy Adams actually acted on that thought. Boarding a flight Friday from Detroit to Los Angeles where she was shooting a new movie, Adams noticed an American soldier being seated in coach. She decided to do something that she's always just thought about doing. Jemele Hill, a reporter for ESPN and a fellow first class passenger, witnessed Adams quietly asking the airline crew permission to switch seats with the soldier, whom she didn't know. Adams moved back to coach, and the surprised soldier, who didn't know who his benefactor was, moved up to first class. Hill immediately got the word out on Twitter, and after their arrival in L.A. Adams told reporters, "I didn't do it for attention for myself. I did it for attention for the troops."

Jesse Jackson tells the story of a visit to the University of Southern Mississippi. While touring the campus with the university president, he noticed a towering male student, six-feet, eight-inches tall, holding hands with a midget coed barely three-feet tall. His curiosity piqued, Jackson stopped to watch as the young man, dressed in a warm-up suit, tenderly picked up the midget, kissed her, and sent her off to class. The president explained that the student was a star basketball player. Both parents had died in his youth, and he made a vow to look after his sister. Many scholarship offers came his way, but only Southern Mississippi offered one to his sister too.

Jackson went over to the basketball star, introduced himself, and said he appreciated him looking out for his sister. The athlete shrugged and said, "Those of us who God makes 6' 8" have to look out for those he makes 3' 3"."

Michael Phelps had already won five gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics. He seemed certain to secure one more in the 4 x 400 medley relay. Phelp's teammate, Ian Crocker, had not been so fortunate. Fighting flu symptoms all week, Crocker's performance had been sub-par. Just as it appeared that Crocker would go home without a medal, Phelps ceded his position in the 4 x 400 medley relay, giving Crocker a shot at the gold.

Told of the gesture, Crocker nearly wept. "I'm kind of speechless," he said. "It's a huge gift that's difficult to accept. It makes me want to go out and tear up the pool."

With that motivation, Crocker helped his team shatter its own record, winning the gold.

In a June 2001 column, religion columnist Terry Mattingly writes:

As lunch ended in the ornate U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee conference room, Senator Jesse Helms struggled to stand and bid farewell to the guest of honor.

[U2 singer] Bono stayed at the conservative patriarch's right hand, doing what he could to help. For the photographers, it would have been hard to imagine a stranger image than this delicate dance between the aging senator and the rock superstar.

"You know, I love you," Helms said softly.

The singer gave the 79-year-old Helms a hug. This private session with a circle of senators during U2's recent Washington stop wasn't the first time Bono and Helms have discussed poverty, plagues, charity, and faith. Nor will it be the last. Blest be the ties that bind.

"What can I say? It's good to be loved—especially by Jesse Helms," Bono said two days later, as his campaign for Third World debt relief continued on Capitol Hill.

The key to this scene is that Bono can quote the Book of Leviticus as well as the works of John Lennon. While his star power opens doors, it is his sincere, if often unconventional, Christian faith that creates bonds with cultural conservatives—in the Vatican and inside the Beltway. Bono has shared prayers and his sunglasses with Pope John Paul II. Don't be surprised if he trades boots and Bible verses with President George W. Bush.

While in seminary in Chicago's suburbs, I discovered that a Promise Keepers' convention was coming to Soldier Field. A group of us took a commuter train downtown, then caught a cab to the stadium.

We were running late, but still hoped to get a good seat. I'm sure our driver, a man who spoke little English, felt intimidated as the six of us piled into his taxi, jabbering loudly. Traffic was heavy and got worse near the stadium. We slowed to a crawl. We weren't going to get that good seat after all.

A couple of us started talking about hopping from the cab and running the rest of the way to the stadium. It sounded good to most of us, but Michael spoke against the plan. He was more concerned about the cabby. If we got out at that point, the driver would be stuck in traffic without being able to refill his taxi. He'd be losing money.

After Michael spoke with us, he turned his attention to our foreign driver. Michael shared about the conference we were going to, and then he shared the good news of Jesus Christ.

I don't know if the man was affected by the message, but I do know Michael's concern provided a base of credibility for sharing the gospel that the rest of us overlooked.