Making the cut

August 8th, 2018

All this month NFL players are stepping up their game with focused practice and preseason scrimmages. During the preseason, players battle it out to earn their place on the team. Otherwise, they face being cut and traded or ending up without a job altogether.

To decide who stays and who goes, coaches mix and match players, putting them through rigorous drills and games to observe how they perform together under pressure. Some combinations of players work out well, while others prove they are not using the same playbook. Veterans and rookies must work together, learning to play as a unit that is fast, smart and cohesive. Most teams will enter the preseason with roughly 85 players, knowing that by September 1 they must cut that number to 53 players.

Team players

Just to make it into an NFL draft and get signed by a team, a player must be incredibly talented. That talent must be matched by the ability to adapt to ever-changing conditions. Changes on and off the field mean that players not only have to do their own jobs exceptionally well but also be able to respond quickly and accurately while still having their teammates’ backs.

Kingdom wins

Like rookie football players, teens are already amazingly gifted and have been exposed to many different types of people. Teens possess the energy, talents, perspectives and optimism that groups need, especially churches. Kingdom builders come in all shapes and sizes and all ages and races — but with one thing in common: the desire to follow Jesus and to recruit more disciples. Like Nehemiah, we must be willing to pray, to be faithful and to accept a lot of help to accomplish our tasks. Too often veteran and rookie Christians alike dismiss one another for their shortcomings, but God calls us to come together to use our gifts so that we might accomplish more together for the Kingdom than we ever could alone.

Question of the day: In what teams or groups do you already participate?
Focal scriptures: Galatians 3:25-29; Nehemiah 4:15-23; John 13:2-18


For a complete lesson on this topic visit LinC.

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