L.J. Smith and the Good Samaritan

Most of you know that I am a bit distracted at times. In grade school, I once got in trouble with a teacher when I got busted for talking to another student but then recited to the teacher what she had said...yes, my smart ass streak started early.

I like to multi-task, but the gist of this is that sometimes I have a VERY hard time concentrating on the task at hand. My brain will get pulled in another direction by darn near anything and it's over for whatever was happening. Some people call this ADD, but I have a hard time believing that myself. Some people call that denial.

So last Sunday in church we had a visiting preacher. Our pastor is in Uganda on a mission trip teaching student pastors about the bible.

The text for our visiting pastor's sermon was the Good Samaritan story from Luke. Some of you know it, but for those who don't a quick summary. A lawyer is questioning Jesus about who is my neighbor in the Love thy neighbor text. Jesus replies with a story of a man who is beaten and left for dead, and two men a Levite and a priest cross to the other side of the road and leave him there. Finally a Samaritan comes along, helps the man, carries him into town and leaves money to cover his tab at the local Hampton Inn.

In part of his sermon the pastor used the phrase, "There but for the grace of God I go" about the Samaritan thinking, that could be me beaten and dying on the side of the road.

Here is were context is needed for the remainder of the story. Most of you know I am a bit of a fantasy sports fan (i.e. fantasy football, survivor pools, rotisserie baseball and such. ) So I had a fantasy draft the last 2 weekends, including the day before this sermon. So in my research I had come upon in Pro Football Prospectus, the biography of L.J. Smith, a decent tight end from the Philadelphia Eagles.

The first section of Smith's write-up goes like this.

If he's honest with himself, L.J. Smith looks at Billy Miller and says, "There but for the grace of God go I."

I won't bore you with the details of why L.J. Smith and Billy Miller are essentially the same player in different circumstances, but suffice it to say that that sermon was in affect over. Man I wish I had better brain power to keep my self from going down some opposite path when something rings a bell. It's like I'm Pavlov's Dog with more than one catalyst.