Team Jesus needs you, unique and wonderful you.
My daughter’s high school football team has had a really good season. They have a new coach this year and there have been some fabulous results. After one of the games, my daughter commented that her friend told her that the kicker almost lost the game for the team. That statement really made me angry. I went on to explain that football is a team sport. If everyone on the team had played better, that kick wouldn’t have meant a win or a loss. They would have been comfortably ahead.
But, we love to be armchair quarterbacks. The blame game is a game that humanity loves to play. We like to win, period. It may be our favorite team we are cheering on, or it may be at the workplace or in our relationships. When we feel we are losing, it has to be somebody’s fault and we are quick to point out who that somebody is.
But, the winning at all cost attitude can cost us dearly in our relationships with each other and with God. When we focus on winning no matter what, our focus shifts to self. In relationships, people who are self-focused are very difficult to work with or play with, for that matter. In fact, self-focused people are difficult to live with.
God calls us to a different standard. On our faith walk, it’s not about winning or losing, it’s about keeping our eyes on Him and being obedient to His call. We are never supposed to compete with each other because we are all called to do something a little different from our neighbor. Everyone’s voice is unique because we are all unique.
Winning souls for Jesus takes teamwork. You may have taught a kid Sunday school until the day he graduated from high school, but it may not click until his twenties while he’s attending some sort of retreat. Even though you didn’t get to see the final results, you planted seeds. You participated in the Christianity co-op.
I believe in my deepest heart that we are called to be a part of community as Christians. We are called to work together to help point others to Jesus. We are not called to compete and we are not called to work alone. It’s easy to talk about the importance of community when we refuse to work with anyone or to get involved in our church.
And believe me, I get it. People in churches can act very unChristlike. They can hurt our feelings and disappoint us. That’s because people are broken. We live in a broken world. People tend to get self-focused if we aren’t very vigilant. Self-focused people can’t be God-focused. We can’t serve two masters. So, we get our feelings hurt and we refuse to participate further because someone let us down. We don’t want to be team players any longer. We will attend church and then hit the door when it’s over, problem solved.
I am unbelievably thankful that Jesus didn’t take that attitude. We would all be doomed to hell. We are called to love each other because he loved us first. We are called to community. Jesus traveled with a group. He was part of a community. After the Ascension, the Holy Spirit was the driving force behind the community of the Church. Check out the Book of Acts. Talk about teamwork! Those guys and gals were on fire.
Sometimes it’s good to stop and ask ourselves what part are we playing on Team Jesus. If we have been on the sidelines for a while, it may be time to suit up and get back in the game. The world needs you, unique and fabulous you. What are you waiting for?
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂