I saw something crazy last week and I can’t get it out of my mind:
Crystal Alicea is one of the contestants on American Idol who made it to Hollywood Week amongst the hundred thousands of other hopefuls (she’s the girl with the red hair on the left). As they prepared to make the last eliminations to choose the final 24, she volunteered to give up her spot so that three others could move on to the next round. What?? Yup. They were a team of four, but the judge (Katy Perry) said they only had 3 spots left. She looked around at first, then said…”I’ll do it.”
Ok, what?
I watched this about 5 times now to see what was going through her head. I know some camera shots and how they edited the narrative can be misleading compared to what actually happened…but the fact is that she gave up her dream so that others could have the opportunity to live out theirs.
This just got me thinking…what would I give up so that others can live? What would I give up so that others can have an opportunity to live out their own dream?
In a small way, we are doing that right now as part of Team World Vision. We took our first steps in learning about the water issues in the world. Then we made a commitment to get out of our comfort zone to do something about it. We took our literal first steps in running that first mile, second mile, third mile…eighth mile….eighteenth mile. We took practical steps in receiving our first $10 donation, $100 donation, $1000 donation…$50,000 donation. (aka my hero Jason Cheung – who’s raised over $50,000 for Clean Water).
I pray these small steps turn into lifelong consistency that leads to something beautiful. Our small steps can actually accomplish the impossible. We can do this!! We are doing it now!
Click and watch the video, then think: what can we do so that others can have the opportunity to live their dream? I want to do more of that…for the rest of my life.
Hanju Lee is part of Newsong Team World Vision, running the OC Marathon to provide clean water for kids in Africa. To learn how you can support them, check out their team page!
