Someone once mentioned the use of sports as an analogy in the devotions. Two simple reasons for that: sports make excellent analogies to working together, teamwork, leadership, striving toward goals, and other such metaphors in life; and, sports are usually something of interest to men. Those of you who love baseball will appreciate my unwillingness to even mention the Astros these past few weeks for two main reasons: this is Ranger country, and as a fan of the game, it can disrupt the force, the karma, the spirit that surrounds a baseball team. We baseball fans are highly superstitious.
That said, what has made this season fun (winning certainly helps) has been the approach of the young team. They are, in a word, fun. They have fun when they play in an almost boyish manner. They play with enthusiasm, and even their best stars, such as the short stop Correa, will follow the manager without question. If there are egos on the team, they haven't surfaced. I'll concede the Rangers, too, have managed to do a great job of maintaining a great attitude among their players, some considerably older than most who occupy the Astros roster. Both teams make the game fun to watch as they play as teams with youthful exuberance having a strong desire to win.
Believe it or not, but Paul makes the same request of us as a body of Christ. "...then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in the spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." (Philippians 2:2 - 3) Oh, Paul goes on, but those two verses tell us all we need to know. As a body of believers, as married men, as men with families, as men in the workplace, and as men among those in our community, including non-believers, act in one accord, with the love of Christ, being one in the spirit and purpose.
Suspend egos. Toss aside your own agenda. Act in humility and service. As Christ says in Mark 10, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve." Test yourself in this. What's your score? Only you know, so ask, "How am I as a servant in the church, as a spouse, as a father, as a friend, as a colleague, and as someone a person may lean on who I don't know?" In short, what kind of team player are you?
Our prayer, which should be often, is to ask Christ to make us servants as Paul describes, serving each other out of love, being unified in voice and action through the Spirit in spirit and purpose.
Hope Men's Ministry
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