Leadership Escalator

This weekend I went to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life. First of all...WOW!!! Half of a million people gathered together to march onto Capitol Hill and in front of the Supreme Court to protest the injustice of abortion - towards babies and women. I'm going to go into an experience from the weekend, but first I just quickly want to encourage anyone who desires a culture of life for our country...there is hope and we are going to win with perseverance, dedication, and prayer. The tides are turning!

During our time in D.C. we had to ride the Metro in order to get around. We were exiting with a large crowd of people and I fell behind my group and so I was weaving between people trying to catch up. I got to the escalator and realized that the people I knew were at the front of the line about halfway up already. There was another escalator void of anyone that wasn't moving. I decided that I could catch up to them if I went up the one that nobody was on. When I got even with my group, our eyes met and apparently that signaled the competitive green light in my head and I started running up the escalator. The race was on and the people from my group also started sprinting. Well I got second place...I'm not disappointed...theirs was moving. Anyway, a little later on while we were on another bus someone was talking about it and mentioned the crowd of people that were running behind me - people who were not with our group. I didn't realize it while it was happening but apparently, I had provoked a whole crowd to run with reckless abandon up the escalator.
Now, here's the lesson that I'm taking out of this: our actions affect others. Brand new revelation, right?! Well, I just got to thinking how we can all find opportunities to lead others in our lives. Live out what you believe in your heart to be true and be in tune to how others respond. I've got room for improvement in both aspects. You never know how people are going to react. I was not trying to inspire people to sprint up the escalator, but they followed. Be aware of your actions and strive to make them worth following.