The “I” in Team
My high school football team was good. Not as good as the Amsterdam Rams this year, but a match-up would have been close. Our football coach was obviously at the school for the football team; but to make a living, he taught some classes and in the spring coached track and field.
I didn’t play football, but since I did run track for a season I got to know Coach’s style and pithy little sayings. A typical track practice might begin with some of us wondering if he knew which season he was in. “Men!” he’d call us (and wow, did we like to be called “men!”) “Line up in the end zone.” At other times, we would hear his gruff voice booming a proverb across the field: “There’s no I in team!” This also left many of us baffled: we could spell; of course we knew there was no “i” in team! A football-player-turned-shot-putter explained to us that Coach meant we each were to remember we were a part of the team, not individual players out on the field. I recognized his point: even though we competed in the individual-event-oriented nature of track and field, we did so as part of and to benefit the whole team.
As I travel through the season of Lent and approach Easter, I have been spending my devotional time in the Psalter. Psalm 22, scripture that Jesus quoted from the cross, takes on new meaning when I remember Coach’s “No I in Team” proverb. I think the way he applied that to track and field was wiser than he may have realized.
When Jesus cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” his anguish was as real as the psalmists’: God’s only begotten son felt his father had abandoned him. But both Christ and the psalmist, by saying “my God,” are still engaged in their relationship with God. They may feel abandoned, but they do not walk away, they still address my God. I also at times feel abandoned and frustrated by God, but must remain in relationship with him whether it’s by wrestling, complaining, speaking, yelling, weeping or laughing. I think that’s the “I” thing that Coach was getting at: I have a responsibility for my own relationship with God.
The other way Psalm 22 relates to Coach’s proverb is talking about the Team. As this prayer progresses, it rides like a roller coaster: from deep anguish (verses 1-2), through times of hope (verses 3-5 and 9-11), back into despair (verses 6-8 and 12-21), and finally into trust and celebration of God’s faithfulness (from verse 22 to the end). In the course of this roller coaster, the psalm shifts perspective away from the individual person struggling with faith. The last third of this prayer addresses groups of people: the assembly, the descendents, the families, the future generations. I find it difficult to pray these words and feel alone; the end of Psalm 22 evokes the chorus of witnesses who have gone before, who are gathered now, and who will follow. What began in such personal anguish (verse 1) ends in public praise among other people (verse 31). The psalmist discovers that we reach the fullness of faith only when we join with others.
What Coach was trying to say is that: Yes, we are individuals, but we are also members of a team and must do everything in our power to participate in the life of the team. For Jesus, this meant a willingness to suffer separation from God for a time, so that his followers would not have to suffer separation from God at the end of time.
My individual faith must benefit God’s work in the world.
I didn’t play football, but since I did run track for a season I got to know Coach’s style and pithy little sayings. A typical track practice might begin with some of us wondering if he knew which season he was in. “Men!” he’d call us (and wow, did we like to be called “men!”) “Line up in the end zone.” At other times, we would hear his gruff voice booming a proverb across the field: “There’s no I in team!” This also left many of us baffled: we could spell; of course we knew there was no “i” in team! A football-player-turned-shot-putter explained to us that Coach meant we each were to remember we were a part of the team, not individual players out on the field. I recognized his point: even though we competed in the individual-event-oriented nature of track and field, we did so as part of and to benefit the whole team.
As I travel through the season of Lent and approach Easter, I have been spending my devotional time in the Psalter. Psalm 22, scripture that Jesus quoted from the cross, takes on new meaning when I remember Coach’s “No I in Team” proverb. I think the way he applied that to track and field was wiser than he may have realized.
When Jesus cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” his anguish was as real as the psalmists’: God’s only begotten son felt his father had abandoned him. But both Christ and the psalmist, by saying “my God,” are still engaged in their relationship with God. They may feel abandoned, but they do not walk away, they still address my God. I also at times feel abandoned and frustrated by God, but must remain in relationship with him whether it’s by wrestling, complaining, speaking, yelling, weeping or laughing. I think that’s the “I” thing that Coach was getting at: I have a responsibility for my own relationship with God.
The other way Psalm 22 relates to Coach’s proverb is talking about the Team. As this prayer progresses, it rides like a roller coaster: from deep anguish (verses 1-2), through times of hope (verses 3-5 and 9-11), back into despair (verses 6-8 and 12-21), and finally into trust and celebration of God’s faithfulness (from verse 22 to the end). In the course of this roller coaster, the psalm shifts perspective away from the individual person struggling with faith. The last third of this prayer addresses groups of people: the assembly, the descendents, the families, the future generations. I find it difficult to pray these words and feel alone; the end of Psalm 22 evokes the chorus of witnesses who have gone before, who are gathered now, and who will follow. What began in such personal anguish (verse 1) ends in public praise among other people (verse 31). The psalmist discovers that we reach the fullness of faith only when we join with others.
What Coach was trying to say is that: Yes, we are individuals, but we are also members of a team and must do everything in our power to participate in the life of the team. For Jesus, this meant a willingness to suffer separation from God for a time, so that his followers would not have to suffer separation from God at the end of time.
My individual faith must benefit God’s work in the world.
posted by Jake at 11:36 AM
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