Choosing Your Team

I was talking with a friend of mine about a potential new hire for his business.  We were considering the traits of the applicant and I suggested that she seemed confident. He suggested she seemed arrogant. Which led me to ask, “Where is the line between ‘self-confident’ and ‘arrogant’?  My friend used a sports analogy, and if you don’t follow college sports you may need to look up these names, but he said, “Frank Kaminsky is self-confident; Johnny Manziel is arrogant. One puts himself above the team and believes the rules don’t apply to him. The other works within the system for the betterment of the team. All things being equal I would rather have Kaminsky on my team.”

I cannot really disagree with my friend’s analysis. But it made me think about why we perceive this woman differently.  I wonder if our perception of other people is as much a reflection of who we are as who the other person is?  Do we evaluate people and judge them as good or bad for our own “team” based on who we are as much, if not more, than who the other person is?  Look at, for example, two basketball teams playing in the NCAA’s Final Four.  Wisconsin and Kentucky are generally judged as complete opposites. To mix metaphors, Wisconsin is the work horse and Kentucky is the thoroughbred. Wisconsin is the “I think I can win” team and Kentucky is the “of course we will win” team.  Why do some people like one and some people the other? Regional loyalties aside, it seems the teams we “like” say a lot about us. The character of the team is the same; whether you like the team or not says more about you than it does about the team. This business of deciding who people really are is important, not just in choosing employees, but in choosing friends and spouses.  I think two people, looking at the same employee candidate’s traits, could see those traits in a positive and a negative light.  Here’s a simple example: say “President Obama” in a room full of 10 people and at least two people will have equally strong and opposite reactions. He is one man perceived in two entirely different ways, not because the President is two men, but because the people perceiving him are so different.  The point being, in choosing your team, you need to know as much about yourself as you need to know about the candidates.

Jesus kept asking his friends, “Who do you say I am?” Jesus asked not because he was unsure of his identity, but to help us discover who we are.  Jesus can be perceived as either a “liar, lunatic, or Lord.”  Your choice doesn’t change who Jesus is, but it reveals who you are.  Do you want Jesus on your team? Choose carefully.