There’s no I in Team
How many times have you heard that phrase in your life? 10,000? A million? I know I’ve heard it at least that many times. Growing up playing team sports, baseball, basketball, soccer, football you constantly hear about how the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, how winning is much more important than personal success, how ball hogs need to learn teamwork or they will not make it.
Problem is in our society that is not true at all. You want proof? Turn to ESPN right now. If it is anything besides a game who are they talking about? Tom Brady? A-Rod? Kobe Bryant? Lebron? Johnny Football? They focus on the individual; they give him all the glory, all the recognition, all the exposure.
You never hear about:
A reliever that gets three big outs in a one run game
The high energy end of the bench player that starts a comeback by collecting important rebounds
The offensive guard that made an amazing pull that allowed the running back to get that first down
I don’t got one for hockey because they don’t show hockey highlights
It was like that for me in high school. It was better for me to have played well than for the team to win. I used teams and players as stepping stones to find the right team that could me in the spotlight. I’ve seen the same thing as my brothers have either gone or are going through high school.
It’s a help me first and then worry about the team mentality.
And as much as I hate to say it I’ve carried that mentality to the World Race.
I’ve been placed on a team, yet since we’ve left training camp it seems all my focus has been on myself. I’ve been spending all my time worrying about me. My funding, my gear, my extra money to do all the crazy stuff World Racers do, it has been my whole focus of this pre launch period. I’ve put the spotlight on me, added an I to Team.
I want to apologize to the rest of Team Illuminate. I’ve been really selfish, distant, and most of all haven’t shown y’all the love you deserve. Loving you has consisted simply of adding your prayer request to my daily prayers and really that is all. My actions have not been on the level the Bible tells us to love others.
Hebrews 3:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Philippians 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
And here is the kicker
1 John 3:17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?
As it so happens I have a sister in need right now. My teammate, Kat Tompkin, is short on funding, and if she doesn’t reach the necessary $6500 in the next two days she will be unable to attend. A fellow squad mate described Kat as, “Have you ever seen Despicable Me? Kat is the grown up version of Agnes. She is bubbly, energetic, and SO incredibly encouraging. She is warm and inviting and her love of people is just infectious.” So, yeah she is pretty awesome. Perhaps it is God’s will for her to go in January instead, but my response to that is that it is also God’s will that we help, serve, and love one another, and it is time I start doing that.
I’m going to need your guys help. As of earlier today she needed $1200 to reach that $6500 mark. We've got two days to reach that. This is nothing for God. My squad has already brought in $29,000 this week so what is another $1200? First and foremost there is power in prayer, and I’m asking whoever is reading this to please pray that the Lord will provide for our team. If you have read my blog about training camp, then you know that I have already first hand experienced the power of others praying over you. Miracles can and do happen.
So here is what I’m going to do. I’m going to match what you guys donate until we get to that $6500 mark. You donate $1 and I will donate $1, you donate $100 I donate $100. I’ve been blessed where I’ve never had to worry about money in my life. I don’t have debt or really any bills to worry about. I had been saving money for what I thought would be essential gear to make my Race the best it is, a good laptop, a good camera, dvds and a hard drive, and money for things like bungee jumping and what not. Those are nice things to have and do, but I honestly believe that having my current team all there at launch will be a much more valuable thing to have than any of those other things combined!
So if you feel called to give simply go to Kat’s blog at: http://kattompkin.theworldrace.org/ and click on "DONATE NOW" on the left side. Please let me know if you do so as it won't update me and I will not know how much to match. You can contact me by either A.) Posting a comment on this blog post, B.) Contact me on Facebook, I'll change my profile picture to the same picture of this blog, or C.) shoot me an email at [email protected].
Thank you all so much for just even reading all of this. Your thoughts and prayers mean so much to Team Illuminate! Together we can get our whole team to be there September 10th!
