Lug-nuts, Friends and Fans [Good News About Colts Quarterback Anthony Richardson]

This is the story of lug nuts, friendly face, making friends, and making fans. Now, when it comes to tough things that happen to us in life, those of us who deal with cancer and

other serious illnesses and things in life know that it's not unusual to have somebody say something to us. Oh man, that's a tough breaker. That's a tough way for things to go, or

maybe even that's, you know, to deal with that cancer. That situation is a tough a tough nut to crack. I didn't tell you about a literal, tough nut to crack. Parker was

cruising down a busy interstate with his girlfriend in the middle of Indianapolis, Indiana. When a bad thing happened, his tire blew out. He had to pull off the side of the road a

busy interstate cars whizzing by. And he did really have all the proper tools. He had to try to get that lug nut moved. Why did he have to try to change the tire with the tools?

And many of us have been in this situation where that lug nut just wasn't budging. And it was a tough situation he was stuck. Cars are whizzing by. I've been in that situation, and I bet.

You have to go where you just don't have the right tools, and you're stuck. And you're stuck in the, in this case, in the middle of an interstate. Not in the middle but on the side of the

road of Interstate, and you are in a bad situation. So, Parker, he's got his girlfriend with him and they got kind of an old beater car. And they don't have much, you know, God will

Do you know a whole lot of money and things like that? But he tries to flag down a car to help him out, cars whizzing by five minutes. Ten minutes, 15 minutes. 20 minutes goes

by hundreds of cars passing by. Finally, a car pulls up. And a young man about their age hops out. He's a young, good-looking guy. He's got a LeBron James T-shirt on. smile on

his face. And he just says Hi, I'm Anthony. How can I help you? And Parker says Then, well, you got a messed-up tire. I can't get the lug nut off, so Anthony

helps him out. He gives him a little money, gave him, like $200 on the spot so he can he says, Man, get yourself some new tires and these, but he gave

Parker and his girlfriend get a ride to an auto parts store so they can take care of some matters there, and they give them a ride back to their vehicle for help to arrive at the

crews the highway crews to help with the with his car. That's who he called. You give him a ride back there, and they strike up a conversation on the

conversation of the car ride to the car repair shop and back. Parker kind of recognized the guy; he said Anthony what do you do for a living? And Anthony said Well, I'm a

football player. That's when it clicked for Parker. Anthony? Anthony! Your Anthony Richardson is the quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts football team. And the guy said

Yeah, yeah, I am, and they had a little conversation about the Colts. The bottom line is that Anthony took some time to help out Parker and his girlfriend, and they

had a conversation about being young people in these various situations. Anthony helped Parker, and Parker said about the whole situation. When they took some

pictures together, and eventually, the highway crew came in to help him out the roadside assistance people came to help them out. And Parker said I guess

I'm a Colts fan now. And so that we'll call our course, I went over the pictures that were posted on Instagram and everyplace else and on social media, and it went crazy.

People found out about it. And Anthony Richardson had made no big deal about being the Colts quarterback or anything like that. Made nope, he did mention it himself. But

when he got out into social media, Anthony Richardson made a a comment about Parker. It says my guy in his Instagram post. It's a weird way to make a new friend, but

I'm rooting for you, my dude. So it blew up a good thing. So, here's what I want to teach you about what I learned. And when I think it applies to us, we talk about taking bad

situations and doing something good with them. That can apply to your life. Put a smile on your face and make you feel good about a lot of young people in the world. Because

It didn't always work out that way. Doesn't always work out that way at all. Because here's what I'm gonna tell you before I give you some lessons learned in the

same city the next day, on a stretch of Interstate in Indianapolis, a young person about the same age as Parker and Anthony. She was driving her car along the interstate, but not.

too far from where this incident took place with Nancy Richardson. And another car cut her off and she hopped her horn at them. And they pulled out a gun and took some

shots at her, and there were bullet holes in her windshield on either side of where she sat, barely missing her. Two different responses to two different situations and needs on the

interstate one a been helpful in developing a fake friend and a fan and one of hatred and rage, which could have resulted in death and destruction and scared this young 18

year-old girl to death really did scare her. Two stories that made the news, one for hatred, heartfulness, and rage and one for helpfulness and humility. And for service to

others. One creates a friend and a fan and goodwill, and the other one creates fear. So, those are the lessons I want to share with you today. In your life and in your mind. What do

Do we want to create? When Anthony Richardson stopped by to help out that motorist, he didn't have in mind anything about, oh, this is gonna be cool on Instagram, this is going.

to blow up on social media, it's going to help me and my reputation. It's going to help, you know, sell tickets to games and be a big thing that way. He didn't say what he did.

for a living or whatever. He just introduced himself as Anthony said, how can I help Parker, who's on the side of the road and Harker didn't even really realize who he was

at first. That wasn't the issue: his football player's fake claim to fame. The issue wasn't the fact that Parker was in great need. At the moment. The issue was one human being

being helpful to another couple of human beings who were in trouble. That's humility, my friends. That is an attitude of helpfulness. That's an attitude of being helpful and

applying helpfulness to people in need. And guess what? How many other cars passed by that situation that day? If it was 20 minutes, it was probably in the 1000s of cars on a

busy Interstate in the middle of a big city. Many, many, many people passed by many people had the means to stop and give Parker a ride, help him out financially, or to

do something to help him out. But this young man, football player Anthony Richardson, is the one who did. Now, I'm sure he's got a lot on his mind. He's busy like everybody else

is, but he stopped to be helpful. So that's one thing that would be helpful. And to do it with humility, and to do it with good humor and a smile on his face and the kind of an

attitude of what do we need to do to get something done here? What do we need to do to get this done? So that is the opposite of a concept I want to bring to your attention

here, which I believe that the other road rage guy probably had. And that's Hubris. Hubris is when you think you own it and that you have it going on. It's overconfidence.

Like, I own the road; therefore, I can take a shot at you. It's a trait that's not very attractive. It's, it's about over. It's about pride. You're gonna muck. It's intoxicating. It's

excessive pride, and it's over confidence that leads to destructive behavior. If you have that, that's not helpful either. Hubris is what it's called. So that's the difference between

humility, which is serving others, to serve the greater good and serving other people. And hubris is just a selfish thing to serve us. That's the difference here is being helpful.

And when you are helpful, you produce hope, and you know what else hope produces is a smile,

a good humor, feeling a good humor vibe. That's what we're about here in cancer and comedy, making this transformation, this transition from the bad things to the grimness of

life, the road rage of life, to good things. And that's what I want to share with you here today that we can learn from this episode with Anthony Richardson because I love what

He said what Richard had said in his response to Parker's social media posts. He says, I'm rooting for you, dude. I'm for you. A weird way to make a new friend,

is what Richard said. I've read it for you. So, I did. And what was the difference in for what was the transition? The transformation for Parker and his girlfriend is as May, and I'm now

a Colts fan. And they don't you think the Colts in Annapolis Colts’ organization and the people. This story went all across, not only to people who follow.

football and things like that all around all around the world, really, as a good news story. And I just hope that you and your life and mine can be mindful of the concepts that

it takes to be to be a good news story in somebody else's life. You don't have to be about road rage. You know, when you got cancer, things like that. It's easy to slip into

depression and even rage about it. And anger. Let's just choose to not go there. Let's choose to be helpful and hopeful. And to give something back and do whatever we can.

I know that you can do it. Even if you are wracked with cancer or something else like that, you can still be generous and gracious to others. And to do something good for

somebody else. That you don't have to be, you know, stop and help someone with a flat tire, but I bet you can get some a good word. You can write somebody a card, you can

do a Facebook post, you can do something that is something good and compassionate and good hearted for somebody else. You don't have to have the means to have you.

know, fluid, talented young athlete to do anything you are you by friends. Be a good person. Be kind, be helpful, be hopeful, be of good humor, and you'll create a smile and

you'll make a friend. Guess what? I bet you'll make a fan. Remember, always do all the good you can, and remember, a cheerful heart is always good medicine.