As I was watching the Super Bowl last Sunday, I was struck by what one of the commentators said: “Football is the only major sport where a player can become a highly successful athlete without ever touching the ball.” 

Winning a football game requires every player to play his own specific role with excellence. If just one position isn’t played well it can cost them the game.

If not for great offensive linemen (the ones most likely not to touch the football), the best quarterbacks are vulnerable to having hundreds of pounds breaking through the line and annihilating them. Without those talented offensive linemen, the best wide receivers wouldn’t get the chance to make spectacular catches that make the highlight reels nor would you see running backs juking and powering their way through mammoth sized players for impressive rushing yards. In fact, over the course of 54 years of Super Bowls, not one offensive lineman has ever won the Most Valued Player award. They may not share the limelight or win the MVP awards, but without them there wouldn’t be any superstars.

Just as there is no “going it alone” in football, there is no “going it alone” in the Church either. Each of us has been given specific gifts, but we all share the same goal—to add to His kingdom and build up the Church. Some gifts put people in the limelight, while others work behind the scenes to make that limelight possible

We all have God-given dreams and gifts. Often I’ve ignored His prompts to follow my dreams. Insecurities, fear of failure and criticism have held me back. But what I see as a failure, God may be using for good in ways I can’t see--may never see. If my heart and motives are right, I have to believe my strivings will be used to accomplish His purpose. 

It’s only recently that I’ve been convicted to not “go it alone” or sit on the sidelines but rather to trust God to train me to develop the gifts He gave me before the creation of the world to do good works, both in the Church and in the world around me.

“Just as each of us has one body, with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to the others.”  Romans 12:4-5