Matthew McConaughey won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2014. According to Wikipedia, he has won or been nominated for nearly ninety other awards during his acting career.
Now we can add Bingo player to the list.
McConaughey recently joined residents of Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living in Texas for game night over Zoom. He was joined by his wife, Camila Alves, two of their three children, and his mom.
In a video posted by the facility, McConaughey can be heard calling out numbers as two seniors say they have bingo.
“Thank you to Matthew, his wife Camila, and his mom Kay for hosting our residents for a few rounds of virtual bingo!” a post on Enclave’s Facebook reads. “Our residents had a great time playing, and they loved talking with Matthew about his family heritage and his favorite drink.”
An executive with the retirement company told Good Morning America over email, “The generosity and kindness Matthew McConaughey and his family showed our residents was beautiful, but more importantly we were gifted with a humble message from his heart. And for that, we will be forever grateful.”
One of the reasons McConaughey can make such a difference in the lives of these seniors is that he understands and embraces his cultural influence. If I offered to play bingo with them, I doubt they would be so excited.
We cannot give what we do not possess. If we have joy, we can share joy. If we are encouraged, we can encourage others.
You are someone to someone
At this point, it’s important to embrace the biblical view of humility. Not thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves less, as Rick Warren noted. And of God and others more.
Consider this reflection from Henri Nouwen: “For a very long time I considered low self-esteem to be some kind of virtue. I had been warned so often against pride and conceit that I came to consider it a good thing to depreciate myself.
“But now I realize that the real sin is to deny God’s first love for me, to ignore my original goodness. Because without claiming that first love and that original goodness for myself, I lose touch with my true self and embark on the destructive search among the wrong people and in the wrong places for what can only be found in the house of my Father.”
Do you know that God loves you as much as he loves Matthew McConaughey? And Mother Teresa and Billy Graham and the saintliest person you know?
In fact, he loves you as much as he loves his Son (John 17:23). That’s because “God is love” (1 John 4:8). His very essence is love.
Even—and especially—in this crisis, we can embrace the fact that we are loved passionately and unconditionally by the Lord of the universe. And we can find a way to share the joy of the Lord with others.
You may not be someone to everyone, but you are someone to someone.
How will you serve them today?
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