I don’t know what made me decide to watch it…but today I was compelled to sit and watch the beginning of the Survivor season rerun for Pearl Island. I haven’t watched Survivor since the 1st season finished up because it lost its appeal to me. But today I watched. I watched as team Morgan time after time failed to win challenges against team Drake. I found myself disappointed and frustrated as I continued to watch this weak team in their constant defeat. It broke my heart because the more they lost, the worse off they were. I was so upset by the outcomes that I walked away angry that the teams were at a disadvantage. The more I thought about it, the more I thought about my own team for the World Race. I began to be thankful that we don’t have to vote anyone out because of our failures. Probably because I would be one of the first people voted out. Then I thought about why team Morgan failed. What was it that team Drake had, that team Morgan didn’t? Team Drake was not stronger than team Morgan. They started out with the same number of people. The same opportunities for supplies. But some how team Morgan suffered defeat time after time.
Team Morgan may have had all those things, but what they didn’t have was team unity. They didn’t work together. They didn’t utilize all the gifts and talents that each person had. And when they had a blow of defeat, they wallowed in it. Sure they lost the first challenge, but they could have regrouped and discussed where they were weak and utilize the strengths of everyone on the team. They could have encouraged one another to use their gifts, lifting them up, helping them to feel valuable. The one thing that was the worse for them was their willingness to follow after a leader who had no leadership skills what so ever. Their chosen leader may have the charisma to get people to follow him, but he didn’t have the skills to actually lead them to victory. There was a boy scout leader on their team, who had over 10 years experience leading teams in to the wilderness to survive. She had the skills for leading, she just lacked the charisma to get adults to follow her. If they utilized her gift of leading they could have become unified and learned to work together to get the win they needed. Team Drake didn’t have a problem working together. They may not have always gotten along, but they knew how to work as a unified team, using each gift that each person brought to the table.
There is a lesson to be learned in team Morgan’s defeat. I too will be going out with a team, and while I may not be facing team challenges in which defeat will cast out a team member, we WILL be faced with many challenges. If we don’t learn to use each person’s gifts and work together, we will too face defeat. Each team member has a gift and talent that has been given to them by God. He has called each of us specifically to this team to serve one unified purpose… to bring glory to God. So I make a call out to my team… posing this question:
What are your gifts and talents that you feel you can bring to the team?
If we know what tools we have to work with, we can use them to be victorious as we face our challenges. Remember that no gift is better than any other, so don’t feel intimidated by sharing it with the group. There is a purpose for that gift, and each person has been called so that we can work together, not so we can lift one person higher than another. Only God is worthy of such a position!
This is how we survive. Not by competing against each other. But working together. I can not survive alone. It takes the support of a team and the love of a faithful God! So let us be unified so that we can be victorious in all that we do!
