KC Wolf

Over the past year, I’ve participated in the Tomorrow’s Agribusiness Leaders program put on by the Kansas Grain & Feed Association and the Kansas Ag Retailers Association. This past Thursday was the graduation for the program, and it was held at the Kansas Agribusiness Expo. The keynote speaker for the event was a funny, well-thought, faith-led believer named Dan Meers. Now, just in case you aren’t a fan of the greatest NFL franchise, which currently has a great coach, the best quarterback in the game, and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend (aka the best tight end in football Travis Kelce) on their roster, I’ll help you out with who Dan Meers is. Dan Meers is the man inside the costume of KC Wolf. He has been their mascot for 35 years and you can tell that he has fully embraced his weird and wonderful career. During his hour-long talk, he told several amazing stories and worked in some great life lessons. Two things he said have played on repeat in my head since then. The first was something he said about choosing how you will attack the day. He talked about how each day we are choosing to trade what we’ve done for one day of our life. That seems obvious, but what keeps playing in my mind are the number of days that I choose to “veg” out and look at Facebook or watch football the entire day. I’m not saying we don’t need those “check out” days, but I certainly don’t want to look back and say that I traded a cumulative year of my life for the opportunity to do nothing. The second thing was this quote: “If you live in a small world your problems look huge.” That quote is what I’d like to focus on in this week’s thoughts.

Dan was seriously injured in a KC Wolf stunt, and he spent a considerable amount of time recovering at both the hospital and at home. After recovering, he has traveled to a multitude of countries bringing smiles as the wolf. He showed pictures of his visit to a leper colony (I didn’t know those still existed) in India. He showed photos from orphanages in Africa and South America. That’s how he tied in his quote from above.

I’ve thought a lot about that quote and what a big or small world looks like since then. While I would love to visit those countries and work with those children, I don’t see it becoming my full-time profession any time soon, and even visiting them seems like a long shot. I wondered, does that make my world small? Answer… I don’t think so. Everything is on a scale of relativity. While my world (and possibly yours) isn’t as big as Dan’s, it isn’t small. I see people living under bridges, in group homes, prisons, and more. I see people fighting medical issues that leave them wondering how they’ll survive every day. I see enough to understand that my problems aren’t very big. 

Perhaps another way to make your problems seem smaller is to count your blessings. Here’s my incomplete list, see if some (or all) of them align with yours.

•   I have a personal relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus and have been saved by His sacrifice.
•   I’m married to my best friend, who in my opinion, is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.
•   I’ve been blessed with children that I’ve been able to watch grow, struggle, and succeed.
•   I have parents (and in-laws) that have loved and cared for me with wisdom as I’ve grown.
•   I have the opportunity to work. Through that work I have the opportunity to provide benefits and blessings to others through my effort.
•   I have friends who love and care about me through my flaws.
•   I have access to a warm home, nutritious food, a vehicle, a phone, a TV, a computer, etc.
•   I have leisure time for Royals baseball, Chiefs football, pickleball, golf, and fishing.

I wrote some thoughts a while back on how good things are always happening, and this follows some of the same line of thought. If you’re reading this – YOU ARE BLESSED. Your list probably doesn’t have some things mine does, and probably has some things mine doesn’t. Either way, you live in the freest country the world has ever known. A country that was earned through the grace of God and the sacrifice of soldiers. A country where we take things like access to food, clean water, sanitation, and general infrastructure for granted. You live in a land of opportunity, regardless of where you started.

Side tangent: Having opportunity and obtaining success isn’t the same for everyone. My mom aged out of foster care and my dad grew up Amish. Mom was able to graduate high school before needing to go out on her own, and my dad was able to complete 8^th grade before needing to work for the family. They worked their tails off my entire childhood, taking night classes to gain opportunity, and working multiple jobs in addition to managing the dairy cows and hogs we owned (maybe they owned us?). They brought in foster children and integrated them into our family. They gave my brother and I a great childhood and the opportunity to take the next step and get a degree. Their level of opportunity was not the same as the children of Bill Gates, but that doesn’t make their level of success any less. Success is working hard at the jobs available to you, providing for and lovingly raising a family, contributing to your church and community, and earning the right to retire and spend time with your grandchildren. Success isn’t about position or money; it's about creating a better world for yourself and others.

That leads me to this week’s challenge… Make your world bigger by counting your blessings. Take some time to reflect on all of the good in your life. When you do, you’ll see how little our problems really are.