Mark-A-Lot

The World Series of Poker website is calling it "one of the great feats in poker history."  And it does NOT involve one of the game's big-name celebrities.

Mark Newhouse sits down at the Main Event final table Monday night for the second year in a row.  Rising to the top from among 6,000 or more players once is outstanding.  Doing it twice ought to get Newhouse considered one of the best poker players in the world.

But in an interview with WSOP.com, Newhouse wasn't ready for that sort of title:

I don’t want to say that about myself. Yeah, I know it’s amazing, but I’m never going to say "greatest" about anything with my name in it.

Compared with the Hellmuths and Iveys of the world, this sounds different - a poker player showing a measure of humility.  Perhaps it comes from Newhouse finishing ninth out of the "November Nine" last year.  But it ought to come from a proper understanding of our own humanness.  Consider one famous example of this:

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am.... - I Corinthians 15:9-10

Who wrote these words? The apostle Paul, whose name is on at least 13 books of the New Testament. (The authorship of Hebrews is open to debate.)  He realized what sort of man he'd been, under a different name....

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples.... - Acts 9:1

But later in that chapter, Saul was struck down and made blind.  Jesus Christ could have killed him, to defend His church.  Instead, Jesus humbled Saul to walk in a different direction:

But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go!  This man is my chose instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.  I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."  - Acts 9:15-16

As the apostle Paul, he went through a lot - including several floggings (Acts 16:23).  Yet he kept humbly doing what God had directed him to do.

If you consider yourself God's gift to the poker table, we have a few suggestions.  1) Go to Las Vegas and prove it at the WSOP level.  2) If you don't (and odds are you won't), admit you're not -- then find ways to serve others in a humble way.  As Jesus put it:

For he who is least among you all - he is the greatest. - Luke 9:48b