Last night, I attended a T-ball game to watch Joey, a four-year-old, swing away at a rubber ball placed chest-high on a batting tee.  The rest of the time, he stood at attention in the infield, moving only when a ball landed between his feet and the coach told him to pick it up and throw it to first.  His mother is a childhood friend of my granddaughter, and I went to play “grandparent” since her parents live several hours away.

Joey isn’t fond of the game.  He is the shortest player on the Grasshoppers’ team and rarely has a ball hit his direction.  This night was different.  “Did you see me, Mom? Did you see me, Dad?  I caught the ball and threw it.” A first for the little guy.

From that point on, Joey covered the entire field.  From left field to center field to third base, if the ball was hit, he sprinted to be part of the group that tackled each other to come up with the prize.  I remember with great fondness our sons doing the same, and last night, I could not stop smiling.

But what really caught my attention was another teammate of Joey who was a head taller than all the other players and clearly had some baseball skills.  Instead of showing off his arm, however, he would catch the ball and hand it to one of the smaller Grasshoppers to throw it to first.  His parents had to be proud.

Unselfishness is in short supply.  Two weeks ago, I watched a video of an Easter egg hunt at a Florida beach where my four-year-old granddaughter, Paige, placed plastic eggs in her younger sister’s basket.  Other hunters were not so kind. They scooped up as many eggs as they could to fill their baskets, with no regard for much smaller kids reaching for just one.

What makes some people share (like that Grasshopper and Paige) and others be all about themselves? One such story in the Bible addresses what happens when we seek to serve ourselves.  Abraham and his nephew Lot had accumulated great wealth in livestock and possessions, and soon there was an argument amongst their servants about rights to the springs of water.                                                                                                                                                                Deciding it was time to part company, Abraham gave Lot the choice of which parcel of land he wanted.  Lot chose the richer, greener acreage of the Jordan River and settled near Sodom (Gen. 13:10-12) having no idea the sins of its citizens would result in his family and him running for their lives.

Ignoring God’s warning not to look back, Lot’s wife disobeyed and was turned into a statue of salt (Gen. 19:26).  The end was not good for Lot and his daughters.  Once safe (if living in a cave is “safe”), the daughters got their father drunk, had sexual relations with him, and birthed the beginning of Israel’s enemies, the Moabites and the Ammonites.

I wonder if Philippians 2:3 was written with Lot in mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. That little Grasshopper and my granddaughter offer lessons for all of us.