Lessons from Survivors

“We may be a global village, but instant communication often isolates us from each other, rather than uniting us.”  L’Engle

Tim and I have been texting each other all morning. He’s at home. I’m in Bend. The text go like this:

Him:  Clean sweep. Our next boy will be named Boston Rob.

Me: Natalie is a 19-year-old moron.

Him: She made it to the Final 3. Touche!

Me: She was as a sycophant.

Him: She’s only 19, what else was she going to do? Of course she was.

Me: I wasn’t like that at 19 and neither were ur daughters.

Him: And u would have been booted off the island.

#

For all the uninitiated, Tim and I are arguing by text over the last television episode of Survivors Island.

Boston Rob took home the million dollars after his 4th go at the money. In order to do that he had to outwit all the other teammates — not a difficult job with this bunch, thus my references to 19-year-old Natalie, who was as googly-eyed over the married Rob as any girl I’ve ever witnessed.

Yes, I know it’s only a reality TV, but as far as reality TV goes, it’s pretty good fare.

In fact, there were some powerful lessons in it this year.

Matt, the kid from Nashville who spent 27 days on Redemption Island by himself, spoke about the emotional difficulty of life alone: “Everything was a chore. Cooking the rice. Washing the pans. Everything about it.”

God, he said, sustained him.

We are built for community. When we are cut off from it, everything about life is hard. When we are part of it — or think that we are — life becomes an adventure.

During one emotional moment the 50-year-old Julie told the 22-year-old Matt that his witness as a Christian had convinced her to go back to church.  She lost the million but Julie says she came away with something far more valuable.

In the end, the thing that won Boston Rob the title of Survivor was his ability to connect with every person in the tribe. He spoke to each tribe member and made them feel as though they were the Chosen One to accompany him to the final four.

Boston Rob said it best in the finale:  We all want to be loved and listened to. That’s not always an easy thing to do.

And his good ol’ Boston try is a reminder that even when luck isn’t on our side, endurance counts. In Rob’s case, it adds up to a million dollars.