Dwelling on the things that matter most in life

Almost every parent of small kids has seen the Disney-Pixar movie “Cars.”

I remember watching that movie with my 2-year-old — you could see how much he enjoyed it. I certainly thought that the movie was well done and the message was positive.

It was around Christmas when my son got the “Big Race” book that is based on the movie.

He loves books — every night after his bath he will go to his room and get a book or two for us to read. Recently, it has been the “Big Race” book and his Bible.

‘You gave up the Piston Cup!’
After I once again finished reading the “Big Race” a few days ago, something got my attention: The author writes, “McQueen backs up and starts pushing the King toward the finish line.

“You just gave up the Piston Cup!” the King says in disbelief.

Then, the rookie repeats what Doc had said about his three Piston Cups.

“It’s just an empty cup,” McQueen says.

Indeed.

“There is a whole lot more to racing than just winning,” Tex explains.

The book concludes: “McQueen agrees with Tex. He has learned from his friends how to be a true champion.”

Reading this, I began to ask myself: “What really matters in life?”

Relationships and community
I believe we can come up with a number of things we think matter, as most of you know that I work with young people in the community.

There are a great deal of young people who think life is all about money, cars, sex, fame — some of them will even talk about it with a tremendous sense of pride.

It is very scary to look at this generation 10 years down the line. If things continue the way they are now, we will have a generation that is greedy, selfish, self-centered, etc. These things are sending our young people down the path of violence, crime, prostitution and drugs.

The things that matter the most in life are relationships. You can have everything — money, fame, possesions — and die a lonely person. Materiel things don’t matter in life, but what matters the most is how you relate to people around you. That’s what is important.

Love has to be the core of any relationship. Where there is true love, the bad things I just described won’t exist. If we truly love one another and teach our children how to love each other, we are not going to have issues in our community.

Goals for 2009
This year, let us make our goal to build a community that works together — black, white, Hispanic, Asian — learn to love and respect each other. It’s in the relationships, our friendships, where we find true success.

I believe this must start with you and me.

When Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” he replied, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ — this is the great and foremost commandment, and there is a second like it, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ The whole Law and Prophets hang on these two commands.” (Matt 22:37-40, Mark 12:28-34).

Kalenga is a high school soccer coach who works with students in a youth group setting. His column appears each Sunday.