With the NFL season almost upon us, I recently took a tidbit of time to check out the trades and other roster changes (retirements, free agents, etc.) for several teams and on one of the sports news websites it highlighted the New England Patriots’ record during and after their Tom Brady era.  As I’m sure many of you could already guess, the numbers, the difference was stark.  Night and day.

And that stat blurb immediately brought to mind the fact that, while I fully agree that the newly-retired (for good, this time, I think) (much to the relief of all competing teams) “Tom Terrific” was just that, what’s usually overlooked is another fact:  that the team also had one of the best offensive linemen/lines, who provided him with the time needed to drop back and make so many good passes.  And oh by the way, as excellent a quarterback as he way, someone had to actually catch those rockets, and without them, too, he would likely have been just an above-average quarterback.

And what about the phenomenal kickoff and punt returners who consistently gave him great field position, making those many touchdowns more probable?

In other words, teammates matter.

And that’s exactly how it is in the Christian life!

Our teammates, our fellow believers, have a lot to do with whatever ground we gain.

Their prayers.  Their encouragement and kindness and love.  Their good advice and sermons and sharings from the perfect  Book.  (I’ve never found the phrase “the good book” to quite satisfy.)

Yes indeed, to the extent that I gain ground at all and achieve greatness of any kind, on any level, you can be 100% sure that many, many, many people God has placed in and throughout my life will have had a lot to do with that.  While I’ll keep the primary focus of myself and this website right where it belongs, on the Lord Jesus Christ, under that umbrella I’m greatly looking forward to telling you about some of these people from my past and present and no doubt future.  But for now it will suffice to wrap up this particular post with two takeaways.

To value and respect and deeply appreciate and thank God (and them) for our teammates’ roles in our lives.  And to be continually grateful and humbled by the fact that, even infinitely greater than the New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick, we have such a perfect and perfectly patient and faithful and forgiving and loving and all-knowing Coach to guide us  through the game of life, to eternal victory.

And speaking of teammates, if you’d like to be MY teammate in this historic event unfolding in real-time at BibleMemory.ORG, here are three great ways to do so!

Donate          Pray          Be a Bible Memory Ambassador
.

Share this post with, well, EVERYONE!

.