“Be devoted to one
another in brotherly love. Honor one
another above yourselves.” – Romans
12:10
It’s the
same old record but in a different form.
It’s a CD this time, not a cassette tape. When we will we get it? We can’t win this thing alone. I’ve seen organization after organization die
because the leaders would rather run their small group than to merge together
and create a larger, more effective group.
There’s strength in numbers.
It all
started with our search for significance and the need to feel important. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called it the
“drum major instinct.” He said in a
speech that folks struggle with the “I must be out front; I must be first.”
No one
wants to follow. Everyone wants to
lead. Eventually you have a group of
folks who all want to be leaders and then the thing dies because no one is
working on the vision. Would we rather
have a small piece of something or all of nothing? Collaboration works. Strategic alliances are powerful.
If we take
the advice Jesus left in his Word, African Americans would not still be
struggling today. I see so many people
hoarding information and competing over crumbs that the real goal is lost. Jealousy is deadly. No one wins.
We must learn to work together and quit drinking “hater-aide” and eating
“hater tots.”
I’m like
this: If I know your lane, I will try to
help you. I won’t try to run in you
lane. I will not reinvent a wheel and
try to claim it was my idea. That’s
dumb. If I see a need that is not being
met and I feel strongly about it, I’ll create something. But if I see that need being met by another
group, I will help that group or give them resources to do what they do best.
Giving instead of draining is what is
important to me.
The point is really not about how I’m perceived but how the overall mission and purpose is accomplished.
We’ve got
to check our motives constantly. That’s
why the psalmist David said; “Search me, O God, and know my heart, and know my
thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way
everlasting” (Psalm 139:24). Wicked means selfish, self-absorbed and
trying to be self important. We know
we’re God’s children and that should be enough.
When we try to impress others – that’s when we lose our focus and
destroy the purpose of very meaningful movements and organizations.
God has
created each of us with a specific purpose. My flavor is not like yours – but they’re all needed in the cornucopia
of life. There are oodles of things we
can do. There’s a lot of our community
needs. We don’t need to split
hairs. God – not egos – should drive our
mission in life. When we’re in a race,
it shouldn’t matter who is going to cross the line and break the ribbon, but
what part you played on the winning team.
Be the runner that passes the baton to the next runner – not the one who
makes the team lose because you’re focusing on the wrong things.
