During a recent Champions League game between Chelsea and Maribor a penalty was awarded to Chelsea.  Chelsea were already winning the game 1-0 and were comfortably moving towards three points.  Normally their penalty taker would have been Eden Hazard but just before he was about to take the kick he was asked by Didier Drogba if he could take the penalty instead.  Drogba had recently rejoined Chelsea and had yet to score for them.  Hazard stepped aside, allowing Drogba to take the penalty, from which he scored and Chelsea subsequently went on to win the game 6-0.  During an interview after the game Drogba said of Hazard's selfless act "I wanted to score that goal so I asked him and he said yes.  This is the spirit we have in this team. We share goals and are happy when everyone is scoring...."

 

During the course of a day we make many decisions which affect us and also affect other people.  Eden Hazard could have refused to let Drogba take the penalty.  He was the designated penalty taker and he most likely would have scored, increasing his goal tally for the season.  He decided, however, that it would be helpful for Drogba to score and boost his confidence so he stood aside and gave Drogba his opportunity.  This made Drogba happy, it made the crowd happy and it also probably made Hazard happy that he was able to help his friend. 

 

The Bible encourages us to be selfless.  In Philippians 2:4 it says 'Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.'  Although we, of course, may look after our own interests we are also told to look out for one another.  If we can help our friends we should do so, if we can help our parents or our teachers we should do so, even if it means that we may miss out on something.  We do not always know what is going on in people's lives and being kind to someone or helping someone out may make a huge difference to them in ways we can't imagine.  So if you get an opportunity to help someone today, please take it.  You could really make their day!