Teamwork
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to be in the home of Tim Tebow. At that time, Tim was a teenager running around in the backyard of their Florida home playing football and basketball with the other teenagers.
The reason I had the opportunity to be there was my youth pastor, at that time, was good friends with the Tebow family. Jimmy Scroggins and I had taken a group of students to a youth rally in Florida. While there for the rally, the Tebow’s invited us out to their home for a meal and some fellowship.
That experience came flooding back into my memory recently when I read a story from Tim. It seems Tim Tebow and his family were vacationing together. Each day began with some sort of high impact game to get the adrenaline flowing for the day.
During one of these competitive sessions, things got a little out of hand. All of the sudden this close-knit family was filled with turmoil. There was name calling and accusations of cheating. What started out as clean family fun soon turned into chaos.
Another family on vacation together in a nearby cottage, came out and challenged them to some competition. That was music to the ears of the Tebow family. Game on!
Within minutes the Tebow family was on the same page. They pulled together as a unit and were successful. The Tebow family chalked up victories one after the other.
What happened? An hour before there was name calling a coarse accusations. Now they were victors. What happened was teamwork. They pulled together. They got on the same page. They had a common purpose. They were fighting together for a common cause. They were not fighting each other but another family.
Like in the Tebow family, sometimes in the Christian family friends and fellow church members have disagreements. If we are not careful harmony can turn into division and strife.
However, it is always good to remember something Paul said in the letter to the Ephesians. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
It is good to remember that we are not in competition against each other but we do have a common enemy. He desires to defeat us by division and strife. Jesus described his tactics this way – he comes to “steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” Commenting on that, Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly.”
When division, separation, and name calling happens remember who is behind the scenes fanning the flame of discord. If our enemy is ever happy, he is happiest when he can get us fighting against each other.
Do what you can today to restore a relationship and fellowship with someone where our archenemy has been victorious.
