Day 69 – The Power of 2 (or 3, or 4)
Ephesians 4:7 (MSG)
But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift.
I’ve been married 21 years this week. We have our moments, but we make a pretty good team. The reality is that we are very different people. I’m up and down, Sam is constant. I do ten things at a time, Sam is focused. I like to hypothesise, Sam doesn’t see the point. I can go round the houses, he gets to the heart of it. I’m good at painting a wall, Sam is good at the edges. I hate doing the edges.
Marriage, like friendships, families or teams are examples of partnership. Anyone who knows anything about a good partnership knows it isn’t about being the same. In fact, the organisation I trained with (Gallup) have done some significant research into this. They looked at 20,000 leaders, 1 million teams and 10,000 followers and discovered what we already knew – the best teams complement one another. They are not full of lemmings or ‘yes men’ that think, feel, say and do what we do. I totally get why this is attractive (there’s plenty of times I wish my three boys adopted this philosophy) but the best teams don’t operate like this.
The best teams do two things.
Firstly, each person in the team knows who they are, what they contribute, what they are gifted to do and they do it as much of the time as possible. I want to encourage you today to think about what you’re made for, what people love about you, and do that as much of the time as you can. Ask God to show you what part you have to play, and then learn to play it with all you’ve got. Ask yourself - what can I do to help others in this challenging season? How can I put my strengths to work? This is a life-long journey so don’t worry if you haven’t nailed it by Friday.
Secondly, brilliant teams cover for one another. They don’t expose each other’s weaknesses - they fill in the gaps. It’s OK that we can’t do everything. It shouldn’t even be our aim. God gave us other people so that they can be what we are not. They can do their brilliant thing, and you can do yours. You need other people: you need their gifts, talents and expertise. And they need you. We are made to do it together. Consider - what do I feel lacking right now? Who do I need to cover for me? God’s plan is for his people to play their excellent, individual parts and then come together to do something quite incredible.
Prayer — Father, help me to see what you have gifted me to do. Help me to embrace it and give it my all. Lord, thank you for the amazing people you have put around me. Help me to stay in my lane whilst wholeheartedly cheering others on and working alongside them for your glory.
Hannah Miller
@hannahloumiller
Hellosidekick.co