Unity:By Focusing on others everyone gets ahead

During the past week there were a pair of disturbing skirmishes in the sports world. One between teammates and the other between two teams at the same university. One involved rookie Coye Francies of the Cleveland Browns. he entered the locker room soaking wet after being the victim of a rookie prank. He hurled a bucket of water and ice at a teammate then rushed another one and threw a punch before being restrained. Later Francis said it was all in fun.

The other incident happened between the Kansas football and basketball teams. On two separate occasions players were seen shouting racial slurs and punches were thrown. Jayhawks guard Tyshawn Taylor even injured his hand throwing a punch.

If you can't get along with the other athletes at the university who can you get along with? The same goes for teammates. On the field coaches urge players to put the team above self. The Bible urges us to put others above self in life as well.

Romans 12:10 says, Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.
Philippians 2:3-4 states, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interest of others.

Of course it takes a lot of practice to live like that, but it is well worth striving for. A team should be a family and whether on the field or off a family should look out for the needs of other members. If the athletes at Kansas or the Browns teammates would have realized we're all in this together those incidents could have probably been avoided.

It all boils down to the self centered attitude that permeates teams and society. It is important for us to rid ourselves of that attitude and to be sure we don't have an inflated view of our self. Whether we are on a team or not this mindset should be applied to all of our relationships. When teammates focus on helping others the team gets ahead. Likewise when people focus on helping others everyone gets ahead.