Unity Produces Winners

Football season is in full swing. All across the United States, players and fans have high hopes and great expectations that their team will win. And let’s be honest ... for most people, it’s not how you play the game. It’s whether you win or lose. 

Several sportswriters interviewed a college quarterback whose team just won a big game. They had beaten a good team by a pretty wide margin, and when asked how he did it, the QB deflected the praise. “It was my guys. They played a great game. I know I can count on them to come through.”

Another question elicited this answer, “The reason we’re doing so well is that we all bought into what the coaches are telling us. There’s no fighting or working against each other here.”

Winners always have one thing in common: They have team chemistry and camaraderie. After a successful game, and especially after the season ends and they win the championship, a reporter inevitably asks the question, “What’s special about this team? What made it possible to win it all?”

And the answer is always, “We’re a family. On and off the field. We have a sense of togetherness that really made it happen. I love these guys.”

The same happens in any sport. Unity produces winners, and this dynamic is at play in every field, whether a business, a school, a club, a fraternity, a church, a military unit, a marriage, or a family. Even in politics.

In Matthew 12:25 Jesus says,

“Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand” (NIV).

A kingdom? A city? A household? The context of his statement is the spiritual realm, which means the same principles are at work in the spiritual dimension as they are in human relationships, athletics, and the business world.

We see this again in Matthew 18:19-20.

“If two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there among them” (HCSB).

According to these verses, unity turns on the power of God, and invites the presence of God. No wonder unity produces winners. We need the power and the presence of God at work in our lives and our relationships.

Years ago, my wife and I adopted the slogan “We’re on the Same Team.” We’re both competitive, and there’s a potential for one of us to feel good for winning, at the expense of the other feeling bad for losing, and we don’t want that to happen. In reality, husband and wife both win, or they both lose. Everyone in the church wins, or the church loses. Just like on the football field, everyone wins, or everyone loses.

Unity produces winners.

Copyright © 2018, Paul Linzey, used with permission.