Working Together

 There is a seminar story which has made the rounds on several of the social media websites, and maybe you saw the pictures, but did you read the story?

The seminar host gave each of the attendees a balloon and instructed them to write their name on their balloon, then the balloon was placed in the glass enclosed room.

Everyone was sent into the room to find their balloon, and they were given five minutes.  As the crowd of people rushed into the room of balloons, they were bumping into each other, running over others in the room, resulting in lots of pushing and shoving as each one searched for his own balloon. 

It is probably no surprise to you to know that the five minutes expired and not a single person was able to locate a balloon with their name on it.  Then everyone was directed to exit the room, leaving all the balloons behind. 

New instructions were given and reentry to the room began again, this time, they were instructed to pick any balloon and find the person whose name was on the balloon they were holding. I can imagine there was still quite a bit of chaos involved, but amazingly, within 15 minutes, everyone was holding his own balloon.  

We Christians have known for a long time there is greater success when we work together.  Numerous are the stories of failure when someone attempts to accomplish God's work all by themselves. This happens a lot in the lives of a lot of our church leaders who begin their work with the idea they can accomplish more when they work alone.  The responsibilities of those leaders soon become greater than they imagined, and soon, projects and deadlines are neglected. 

I say all of that to echo the seminar leader from the story above.  Greater things are accomplished when we work together!  Let me insert here there is personal responsibility and accountability in seeking your relationship with God and knowing his Son's death brings your eternal salvation.  But in the church, as we can see in the examples of the Book of Acts, the greatest success comes when we lean on each other. Utilizing our individual spiritual gifts for the benefit of the entire body of Christ, brings benefit to all of us. 

I try to tell you from time to time how much we need God.  Most of us recognize how disastrous life is when we attempt to go it alone, without God.  You and I both need to keep the relationship between us and God in good shape with lots of prayer and listening and activity. 

Today, I want you to think with me of how much we need each other.  We are not on a solo flight through life.  Perhaps your talents and abilities will be the very things that inspire me to greater levels of faithfulness.  I'm saying, give it a try, and be amazed at how much we can accomplish for God, through our right relationships with each other.  God bless.

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