To use a currently popular expression, “I’m old school”.  Recently, Uncle Sam mailed my Medicare card, so the truth is, I guess I’m just old.  But, I’m also old school in my values, my thoughts, my beliefs…….and I don’t apologize for that.  Along those lines, most of my favorite movies don’t play well with today’s audience.  Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate some modern fare, but most I do not understand nor care for.  My favorite all time film dates back to 1971.  As I write this, that would be forty five years ago.  Four and one half decades.  Not so long ago to some, more than a lifetime to most.  To borrow one of my Father’s favorite expressions when describing a worn out or other wise obsolete object, “Well……well that thing’s forty years old”!  Ummmmmm.  I guess it’s time to get back  to the subject at hand.  And the subject at hand would be my all time favorite move.  Well, Butch Alexander’s All Time Favorite Movie is not some multi, multi, multi million dollar Hollywood Extravaganza.  No Academy Awards.  That’s right, No Academy Awards.  None.  Not for the film.  Not for the soundtrack.  Not for the theme song.  Not for a single one of the stars.  No Academy Awards of any kind.  In fact, I don’t think the movie that is my all time favorite was made in Hollywood.  Maybe it was made in Hollywood, but if it were it wasn’t some big time production.  I know this because, Butch Alexander’s All Time Favorite Movie never played in a theater at all.  My All Time Favorite Movie was released in 1971 as an ABC Movie of the Week.  That’s right, a made for TV movie.  Butch Alexander’s All Time Favorite Movie is, “Brian’s Song”.

For those of you who are asking, “What?”,  because you never heard of the movie, allow me a brief description.  The movie “Brian’s Song”  is based upon a book published a year earlier than the film’s release, 1970, by a gentleman named Gale Sayers.  Yes, gentleman.  That’s Gale, not Gail.  Gale Sayers is considered by many to be the greatest NFL running back of all time.  Others would argue that point.  All would have to agree, that he is at least in the top ten greatest NFL running backs of all time.  It is important to note that the name of the book, however, is not “Brian’s Song”. The name of the book is I Am Third.  So, if you know anything about my background, you are thinking, “Of course his favorite film is about sports.  And football at that.  What else would a retired coaches favorite film be about”.  The thing is though, that “Brian’s Song” is not my all time favorite film because it’s about sports.  “Brian’s Song” is my all time favorite movie because it’s based upon a book that stressing the possibility of living a life in which a human being does not put himself or herself first.  The book is written by a black gentleman who wrote about his friendship with a white gentleman in the racially torn 1960’s.  Gale Sayers was the black gentleman.  Brian Piccolo was the white gentleman.  Brian Piccolo believed in the God of the Bible, as did Gale Sayers.  Both believed the Bible taught that a human beings had two missions in life.  Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo believed that God asked man to put God first, other human beings second, and themselves third.  The inspiration of the book is that Piccolo actually lived this life.  Piccolo daily lived a life in which a white man lived to serve a black man.

In this me first society, it is so difficult for any of us to conceive of serving anyone else.  To serve one of another race.  A lower level of social status.  A person of lower means. Of a lesser title at our place of employment.  I agree.  It’s not easy for me either.

Whether we believe the Bible is the infallible word of the Creator of this Universe, or not, most would agree with the Golden Rule, as well as the Ten Commandments in principle.  May I challenge you to review the Ten Commandments.  The Ten Commandments are first found in the Old Testament book of Exodus, chapter twenty, verses two through seventeen.  Read them for yourself.  The first four commandments are a description of how God would like all human beings to relate to God Himself.  The last six of the ten commandments are a description of how God would like all human beings to relate to all other human beings.

Brian Piccolo lived this life.  Not infallibly, I’m certain.  None of us is capable of perfection in this life.  Brian Piccolo apparently lived close enough to God’s desire that another believer, Gale Sayers, took notice.

Allow me to refer you a second time to God’s Word.  I am quoting the New International Version of the Bible.  In the Old Testament book of Micah, chapter six, verses six through eight, we find these words, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?  Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?  Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”.  A great description of placing oneself third in this life.