Recipe for Losing: Focus on self above team… instead of self for the team!

Recipe for Losing: Focus on self above team… instead of self for the team!

I’ve written in the past about guys I played with that couldn’t wait to see the scorebook or the stat sheet after each game… this was even true in post-scholastic rec leagues I played in… and I confess was true of me to some degree through high school. I cared about our team greatly but, to be honest, we were not a “winning program” and I found myself often focused on individual victories. To this day, when I reminisce about high school ball, I tend to talk about what I did more than what we did. The only team victories that come to mind are games where I scored a last-second winning shot… or had a big scoring night against bigger players… or even my first coaching victory when, as an 18 yr old, when I led a jr. high school team to a big unexpected “W”! (I detect an “I” problem in that paragraph!)

Yet as I matured, I started playing a different position than I did in high school… I moved to the point guard position and discovered a whole new joy in playing! Granted this was just at the adult rec league level, but I found that my teams had much more success in the wins column when I started taking pride in making others around me better. I still scored the ball… a lot… but also found myself piling up the assists. I started taking notice of little things such as where certain shooters liked to receive the pass to be in their best rhythm... or how words of affirmation would encourage stronger effort… I was “considering” what set up my teammates for team success!

The majority of the New Testament is written to them team, and many of the things we attribute to the individual is better translated to the team as a whole… and when we do read individual instructions of how we should be playing the game, they tend to be in the context of how that will help the team.

Hebrews 10:24 tells us: “…consider one another in order to stir up love and good works…”

This is not a game plan that tells one to ignore his personal game/growth… but to the contrary… one that says, “get better… grow… be the best you can be… for the sake of the team!”

Ephesians 4:16 says: “from whom the whole body (the team) joined and knit together by what every joint supplies (the individual player), according to the effective working by which every part (the individual player) does its share, causes GROWTH of the body (the team) for the edifying of itself in love.”

This week’s game plan question: Have you ever done something because others were depending on you?

The team needs you.. it is hard to run plays when players are missing!