Life is a Team Sport

As many of you, I've been watching the Olympics recently.  As I watched yesterday, I was struck by the importance of team.  This is the case with every sport, including the individual sports.  The team is not just the individuals you play the sport with, but it includes those that have gone before, those that are cheering you on, coaches, peers, sponsors, family, and everyone else included in an athlete's success.  Each person on the team is there in a different way when you win and when you lose.    

I think often we make the mistake of pursuing life as an individual sport.  We forget that we have a team of people (even in an individual sport) that come alongside us and make what we do possible.  In my life, I have to acknowledge the need for others a little more than some might since my job depends on the sponsorship of friends.  However, even so, when things get tough, my natural tendency is to try to tough it out on my own.  I think we all tend to do that.  When life gets rough, we try to figure out how to fix it.  Often that means that we push our team away and try to get things figured out before we reach out to our team again.  

However, the more I think about it, the more I think we are called to something completely different.  I think we are called to live life in community.  It is in those hard times, when I want to pull away from everyone,  that the best thing I can do is remember that I have a team of people surrounding me.  

I also think about how Olympic athletes have a group of people scrutinizing them and being honest with them about their mistakes in order to make them better.  We expect this from athletes, but often when it comes to our personal life, we want to hide our failures and our shortcomings.  Why do we have different standards for athletes?  Why do we recognize that growing and getting stronger requires recognizing where we struggle when it comes to them, but not when it comes to us?  Why do we think we can do it alone?  This challenges me to be more of a person that invites people into my life to live every aspect of my life with me. 

The other night as I was watching team gymnastics, I recognized one other way in which I often live differently than an athlete.  In the team competition only the best three individuals get to compete in each event.  Team members have to rely on each other in areas of their own weakness, even though compared to me they are all amazingly gifted in even their weakest areas.  Why do we want to be good at everything?  Why don't we want to admit that someone has a gifting in something that we don't have?  

These are the things I have been trying to implement in my life.  I want to live in community in a way that causes my reliance on others.  This goes against my natural reaction to life, but the more I chose to rely on others, the richer my life becomes.  

I also realize how blessed I am to have such a large team of people living life with me, from those that have known me a long time to those that I am just meeting.  I have a wonderful support system here in Taraz of friends and family that have been here for me for nine years.  I have people encouraging me from the all over the world.  I also have a team of people sponsoring my work here.  Thank you for being part of my team and helping me to live a richer life!