The Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl.  I posted a blog about how young and inexperienced they were.  I also wrote about the importance of teamwork.  I also highlighted the fact that there were no “super stars” – they just played together.

A member of that Seattle Seahawks team is Tavaris Jackson.  He was acquired by the Seahawks to play quarterback along with Russell Wilson.  They wanted two good quarterbacks in case one was injured.  They got a jewel in TJ!

Tavaris is from Montgomery.  He played at Lanier High School and Alabama State University.  I was talking with him a couple of weeks ago and asked him if the stuff we read about the Seattle Seahawks and their teamwork, etc. was true.  His comment was “John Ed it is even more true than you have communicated.  It is all about teamwork.  We talked about and practiced teamwork every day.”  Tavaris often says “Teamwork makes the dream work.”

Teams work best when nobody wants to receive the credit.  Teams work best when everybody does his or her assigned responsibility.  Check out the MVP in the Super Bowl.  It was a total surprise.  It was a “nobody” who was fulfilling his function on the team and became a “somebody.”

In I Corinthians 12 Paul uses the analogy of the body to say how a church or a team should function.  He talks about the eyes and the ears.  He emphasizes that no one part of the body can say it is more important than the other part.  He notes that the eye can’t hear and the ear can’t see, but when the eye sees and the ear hears, and the rest of the body parts fulfill their function, you have a healthy coordinated individual.

I remember reading about a sea captain and a chief engineer who argued about who was most important to the ship.  To settle the argument they decided to swap places.

The chief engineer went up to the bridge to guide the ship and the captain went into the engine room to keep it running.  After a couple of hours the captain suddenly appeared on the deck covered with oil and soot. 

He yelled, “Chief you will have to come down here, I can’t make her go.”  The chief replied, “Of course you can’t – we’re aground.”

Each of us has a function to perform.  When God gives us an assignment, no one assignment is more important than the other.  It is important to fulfill our responsibility.

Some of the most effective tools Satan has are divisiveness, pride, personal ambition, selfishness – and the list goes on.  With these tools in effect he can beat any team, church, business, or charity.  And he can deploy those tools in deceptive and unexpected ways.

We often hear, “There is no ‘I’ in team.”  Mike Henig has a hand printed note on his office door which reads, “There is no ‘I’ in Jesus – but there is ‘us.’”

Go team!!!