Download In the World for January 27 here.
“THERE’S NO ‘I’ IN ‘TEAM’”
Coaches tell their players, “There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’.” In other words, no matter how valuable any one player may be, the goal is for the team to excel. Nevertheless, one individual’s performance canmake the difference between winning and losing. This may have been the case when officials failed to call pass interference on an L.A. Rams player in last Sunday’s NFC playoff game. Very near the game’s end, the New Orleans Saints were closing in on the goal line when a Rams defender interfered with a pass reception that could had given the Saints the winning touchdown. Officials failed to make the call. The Rams went on to win in overtime and are now headed to Super Bowl LIII. The Rams player later admitted he committed a foul and an official admitted that he missed the call.
THERE IS AN ‘I’ IN ‘CHRISTLIKE’”
During the uncertain time of his imprisonment, Paul wrote to the church in Philippi. The unity of the church, according to Paul, did not depend on his situation, but rather on the extent that believers followed the example of Jesus. Sometimes life’s rules seem not to have been fairly enforced and our lives take a grievous turn. Do we then shift from being a loyal team player to focusing on our own needs? Or do we take a more Christlike approach and subjugate our personal satisfaction to the greater good of what God may be doing?
- A missed call in the NFC playoff game may have had great consequences. As Christ followers, what can we learn from that? How have we learned that life is not always fair?
- If there is such a thing as a superstar Christian, we would have to consider Paul to be one! But Paul refused to be bitter about the unjust circumstances of his imprisonment and encouraged the church at Philippi to be other-centered rather than self-centered. What was the basis of his reasoning?
- In what ways does our culture encourage us to think, “It’s all about me”? What helps you resist temptations toward selfishness and conceit?
—Charles R. Boatman
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