The bigger the foe, the greater the Tribe

I was reading through the book Tribal Leadership when I came across the statement that the success of an organization is dependent upon the size of its opponent. As humans, we organize into different tribes. Each of these groups find themselves in competition with another tribe. The question is with what opponent has your Tribe elected to compete?

Through the years, coaches have told me that our program is "the game" for their team. We are the opponent which they have the most focus on when preparing. We are the team they circle on the calendar and will go the extra mile to defeat.

One year, a conference opponent called up its former all state graduate players to come out to practice to emulate our offense! They took the six best players who had recently graduated and had them prep our offense for one week and then run it against their defense in practice just to prepare for us. Wow.

So, who do we see as our nemesis? Who is our rival by which we measure ourselves? We believe the entire league is our foe, all 40 plus other teams. We expect everyone's best shot and we stand ready to defend the standard by which our teams have come to be measured. We have built our success on the knowledge that everyone we play will bring their A game. We thrive on the adversity they bring week in and week out because that is what makes us stronger.

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies...In my distress I called upon the Lord,And cried out to my God;He heard my voice from His temple,And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.

PSALMS 18:2-3,6

Likewise, we know as Christians we are going to face adversity. All of our relationships will be tested because the Devil is the ultimate advisory. We will have moments of weaknesses in the game of life and we will sin. As Christians, we should stand ready to be tempted and turn to God through prayer. He will never forsake us and will never allow the situation to grow beyond our capabilities of handling it.

Jonah is a great example of a man who turned away from God's instruction when he refused to prophesy in Nineveh. The result was finding himself in the belly of a big fish. If you have not found yourself in the belly of a proverbial fish, then keep living because you will. God uses these moments to point us back to Him and to His righteousness.

Where might God be working in your life? Or, better yet, where should you ask Him to come alongside you and work through adversity? Team God is the only way to defeat Team Devil. However, if you are only calling upon Him in times of extreme adversity then you are limiting the number of foes with which he can assist. Stop limiting God's ability to intervene and watch as he uses you to further his Tribe of righteous warriors on earth.