The Portion of my Inheritance

“Kory and I had this thing we would say to each other almost on a daily basis. “Are we winning, Mama?” Kory would ask.

“Yes, Kory, we are on the winning team,” I would always reply.” (excerpt from Ponderings of a Mother’s Heart)

Of all my years of subbing in the PE classes, one of my all time favorite games was called ‘Mission impossible’. The object of the game was “team work”. We would divide the class into two teams, one at each end of the gymnasium and each team had to work their way across to the other side of the gym. The problem was that the whole team had to make it across for that team to win, this was not a one man game.

Each team was given a scooter, 2-3 carpet squares and a jump rope. At the center of the gym was a huge black mat, with two smaller mats centered between that and the finish line. There also was a beach towel on each side, close the the outer boundaries. They could not touch the gym floor at all, or they would be sent back to the beginning. They could use the carpet squares, scooter and beach towel to walk around, but the black mats had to stay put.

I always enjoyed watching the strategies that each team would come up with, and seeing the team players, verses the self-seeking players. Those who only worried about getting themselves to the other side lost the game for the whole team. Usually the winners would depend on the stronger, athletic people to get them across. They would use two carpet squares and carry people to the center mat on their back, while others would drag someone on the scooter using the rope. It is always best to get the beach towel straight away, then several students could walk together on it using short, scuffling steps.

We would often remind them that they had to work together as a team to win this game, and when a team would lose because of some that were not team players, we would ask them this question. “Why do you think you lost the game?” And they would respond, “Because we didn’t work together as a team.” (they always knew) But the very next game they would do the same thing again, and we would talk about it every time. Eventually they would get it and they would finally taste victory.

This has been forefront in my mind these past several years, and I have been pondering our earthly walk with our Lord. I see so many self-seeking team members, each one looking out for his own interests. People who want their own way, who want their name known and their voice heard. God’s own people jockey for position, manipulating situations, demanding their own way and forcing their way to the front of the line, often times using the bully method. We are so afraid that someone may get something that belongs to us, or lose something that is rightfully ours.

Now, I confess that I am “chief among these”, which is exactly why the Lord has shown this to me, again and again. I mean, come on, who doesn’t want their own way, someone patting them on the back and saying, good job or great idea?

I believe that satan does the most damage from inside the body of Christ because of this reason. He doesn’t have to work very hard either, he just plants the seed, and sits back and lets our flesh come out fighting.

But what happens is this; we end up fighting against each other instead of working together as a team. Aren’t we all on the same team? Aren’t we all working for the same cause? Aren’t we all working for team Jesus?

Isn’t it time for us to “get rid of all evil behavior? To be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech?” (1 Peter 2:1) Let us now work together as a team, carrying each other on our backs, dragging each other along, supplying any means possible to get our team members to safety, and rescuing those of us that feel lost or abandoned. Let us do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above ourselves. (Philippians 2:3) It is time for God’s people to decrease, because that is the only way that He might increase. Even if it means that we get no credit, no applause, or no pat on the back, just knowing that we have honored our Father in heaven should be reward enough.

And in the end, when we make it to the other side, we will all come out winners!

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor (perpetual animosity, resentment, strife, fault-finding) and slander be put away from you, along with every kind of malice (all spitefulness, verbal abuse, malevolence). Eph. 4:31 (AMP)