I was reminded today, via an itunes U podcast featuring Brett McCracken and his colleagues at Biola University, of something I heard many years ago.

At the end of the program, Wheaton College professor Jerry Root is quoted saying, “There are two kinds of people in the world.  Here I am people and There you are people.  My life is an effort to be more and more of a There you are person.”  I know Jerry says this because I heard it myself sometime in the midst of my Wheaton College career.  I am just as challenged today as I was 7-10 years ago.

Oh, how I want to walk into a room and say, “There you are!” more loudly than I could ever say, “Here I am.”  I, too, want in humility to let my coolness dissolve in the presence of others.  Let me be unmasked, uncovered, unknown to myself.  Let my mind stop calculating my perceived presence, my situation, and my expectations of adoration or even simple reception.

Instead, let my be clear headed, sweet heart-ed, and genuinely busied with making someone else feel like they are the only person in the room–the most important person I speak with today.