Human beings work best in partnerships. Friendships, marriages, neighborhood watches, city governments, and on up the line are the lubricant that keeps our society running smoothly.
Striking out on our own scours away the oil of personal relationships, and the friction of daily life soon begins to burn bridges that can never be rebuilt.
Basketball is a good example. It’s a team effort out there. A guard has to guard, but given an opening, the same guard has to be ready to step into any opening—and by the same measure, the rest of the team has to be prepared to let him step into that opening.
If one man hogs the ball, determined to make every basket, score every point, and claim all the glory, the game will collapse, and everyone will lose out.
Sometimes we have to give up a personal victory for the greater good of our fellow players.
We have to take one for the team.
Two of the most important words in a marriage are we and us. The two words that have destroyed more marriages than any other are I and me.
Certainly, those words have done no such thing, but the attitude behind the words is what stirs up anger, animosity, and division. Eventually, the word divorce comes out, and it creates a rift that can never be undone. It’s a scar that rubs us badly every time it reappears.
In Ezra 9:6, we read of the great prophet’s confession of sin:
“Oh, my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.”
Note the switch in mid text from the personal pronouns I and my to the inclusive pronoun our. What’s significant here is that Ezra had committed no sin. His docket was pure and unblemished. Israel, however, had no such claim to purity. They had intermarried with the heathen people around them, thereby polluting the holiness of God’s people.
Yet, Ezra was a team player, willing to wrap himself in the wrongdoings of his people and accept that he was responsible by association. He had to take this one for his team, God’s chosen people, the children of Israel. When they stumbled, they must be lifted up, and that could only happen when they were lifted up together.
Sometimes our family wrongs us, and we want to thrust our fist into the air and cry, “I did nothing wrong!” Maybe not, but we’re a team. It’s the word we that matters, not I, me, or my.
Let’s take one for the team. We’ll bring about a greater victory if we work together than if we try to go it on our own.
Our Christian walk is not about us. It’s about all of us.
Copyright © 2015 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO.E.25.15.vp.kjv
Originally Published in Relationships on 9-10-15