Thursday, August
9, 2018
We who are
strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do
what is right and build them up in the Lord. For even Christ didn’t live to please himself. As the Scriptures say, “The insults of those
who insult you, O God, have fallen on me.” Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago
to teach us. And the Scriptures give us
hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.
May God, who gives this patience
and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is
fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice,
giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:1-6 (NLT)
Paul believed in taking
one for the team. The first
time I heard this expression was in high school. Our football coach was showing us a film of Tommy
Gandly taking one for the team. Tommy
wasn’t the biggest guy on the team, but he had football sense; he knew how to
get the job done. Coach Weitz focused on
that quality by showing one play from the video of last Saturday’s game over
and over. The play was Tommy playing
defense; the other team came at Tommy’s side with what looked like a wall of
red…huge guys running at top speed, ready to knock any resistance out of the
universe. Tommy knew he couldn’t make
the tackle, but just as the “wall” reached him, he dropped low, like a snow
plow and took out three of the biggest guys.
They went down like bowling pins, and that cleared the way for our team’s
players to tackle the ball carrier! Tommy
gave up the glory of making a tackle to others.
But, without laying himself out for the team, they might have bulldozed
through us for a touchdown. His
sacrifice made the team’s success a possibility.
I talked with Coach Weitz a
few years ago before he passed and told him how that one scene has stayed in my
mind all these decades. It indelibly printed
a picture for me of how unselfish sacrifice can mean the difference between
winning and losing.
It’s that way in football,
and it’s that way in life. Church, business,
family, school, community relationships all depend on getting the job
done. And sometimes that means you lay
yourself down for the good of others.
That’s quite a bit different
from the kind of entitlement mentality that seems to pervade our culture these
days. Somehow Jack Kennedy’s famous speech
on Inauguration Day 1961 makes a good sound bite, but fades quickly when it
comes to rubber touching the road. Ask
not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country
has morphed to the lower level of get out of my way, give me this, and that,
and bring it now!
In Paul’s letter to the
Roman believers he reminded them that caring for others is the stark difference
between selfishness and Christlikeness.
It is only in putting the needs of others above the preferences we may
hold that we find the true character of Jesus present.
For You Today
If you need a witness statement
to support that idea, try this one:
He went on a
little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If
it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want
your will to be done, not mine. Matthew
26:39(NLT)
If going to the cross wasn’t
taking
one for the team, such a concept doesn’t exist!
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Sarah Walsh, Hauppauge
High School Homecoming
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