I should be completely creeped out right now.
My skin should be crawling.
I should be calling an exterminator, for Pete’s sake.
But for some reason I am intrigued by the tiny ants that have invaded my side porch where a couple pieces of dry dog food escaped the bowl.`
I’m not sure why, but unlike other bugs and insects, ants don’t scare me.
They fascinate me.
Maybe it’s because they function as a colony. They work together and seemingly put their itty bitty heads together to formulate a plan.
They are strong and smart (how does a brain fit into that minuscule cranium?) and it appears that these side-porch-dwellers also have a keen sense of humor. 🙂 For some strange reason I could watch them for hours – as long as they don’t make their way into my house!
As I am writing this I am on my bedroom deck that overlooks the soccer/baseball fields behind us. And I am witnessing another kind of teamwork. 10-year-old girls in their bright orange shorts at soccer practice. They are much, much cuter than the ants (:-)), but seem to be working in a similar fashion – together. They are listening to their coach and to each other to function as a good team. They will each have their own position and job in the game, but they all share the same focus – to score goals and to defend their own.
If one of the ants goes rogue, it suddenly becomes more vulnerable. It’s easier to step on and destroy one ant.
If one of the soccer girls decides to do her own thing in a game, the whole team suffers and ultimately she will be eliminated.
We were meant to work together. To bring what we’ve been given to the table of life and share it for the good of the “team”. We need others to cheer us on, to pick us up when we get hurt or fall in the game. To accomplish our ultimate goal – to Love God And Love People.
There is strength in numbers greater than one. Every player has different skills and abilities that coordinate to work with another. It’s how we were designed. It’s how we get the job done.
Time alone is essential sometimes. Jesus modeled that for us when He would have times alone to go and pray and spend time with His Father. But the bulk of His time was spent with 12 men that had His same goal in mind. To Love God And Love People. Jesus knew how important it was to be part of a team. He knew that each of His imperfect teammates had their own set of strengths to contribute and mesh with the others. He knew that He could encourage them and they could encourage Him as well. And together they could score the ultimate “goal” – to share God’s love with the world.
Let’s be like ants or soccer girls. Let’s get in the game as a team player, recognizing we can’t do it alone and that life is much more enjoyable when shared with others.
Romans 12:4-5 – Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
1 Corinthians 12:14, 24-25 -Now the body is not made up of one part but of many…But God has combined the members of the body… so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
Colossians 1:17-18 – He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church;
