I Think That Says 'Fragile', Honey.

 

 

A Christmas Story is one of those movies you just have to see. What's not to love? Turkey stealing dogs, a mouth washed out with soap, a bumbled trip to see Santa, 'You'll shoot your eye out!", a triple dog dare, a bunny suit, and a glorious Red Rider BB Gun. I was thinking about my favorite scene from the movie earlier -- the leg lamp. If' you've never seen it, Ralphie's dad wins a prize. The anticipation builds, and when the box is finally opened, inside is a horrendously ridiculous leg lamp. His dad proceeds to put the lamp on display in the family's front window much to his mother's shame. It's all very funny, but the part that cracks me up every time is what his dad says just before he opens the box, "Fra-GEE-Lay! It must be Italian!" 

The word on the box is, of course, 'fragile,' a fact Ralphie's mother gently points out. I thought about A Christmas Story today because something else fragile came to mind. It's not an object but something that exists between people, something we share.

 

Unity. It can be broken, damaged, or ruined in a second. All it takes is a careless word, an unkind action, or poorly managed conflict. I feel like I've spent a lot of time and energy lobbying for unity, and most of the time it's been downright elusive.  Unity is achieved and in the next second it's gone. What's worse is that I'm often the offender. On two specific occasions in the last week, I have caught myself complaining. These weren't legitimate complaints. I wasn't identifying a genuine conflict or communicating about a prime issue hoping to solve problems to make things better.

 

I was just complaining. I could easily have kept these things to myself. I didn't feel better after I complained; I actually felt worse. I caught myself in the act and realized what I was doing. Since then I've been reflecting on my careless whining. It wouldn't have hurt anything if I'd just sucked it up and kept my mouth shut. Not to mention that something really important is at stake -- unity.

 

Anytime people are working together toward a common goal, they are pretty much unstoppable. If each individual can offer up his or her strengths for the good of the whole, the whole becomes more valuable than the sum of its parts. Stephen Covey talks about this in his Seven Habits Series. He calls it 'synergy.'

 

Effective team work is hard to come by. There's more than one reason for this. First, most obviously, you can't make it happen alone; you have to trust other people. Unfortunately this doesn't always happen because sometimes people aren't trustworthy or aren't able to let themselves trust. Second, conflict must be managed well. When people work together, there are bound to be differences of opinion. How they're handled is the key to success. Third, simply finding a common goal is sometimes an obstacle in itself. Everyone on the team has to have the same end in mind.

 

If you can align all these factors, the results will leave you positively gobsmacked. I've experienced it. It has happened at my school. We've reduced our drop out rate and are better preparing our students for life after high school. If you'd told me our school's stats six years ago would become what they are today, I would have said, "NO WAY! SHUT UP!"

 

Sports teams, marriages, families, and churches work the same way.

 

One of my deepest desires is to feel and see more unity. I long for all of us to be on the same team, despite our differences. I want that for my biological family and for my faith family. When Jesus prayed for us in the Garden of Gethsemane, unity is one of the specific things he asked for. The Gospel of John tells us --

The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they’ll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they’ll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you’ve sent me and loved them
In the same way you’ve loved me. (20-23 The Message)
 

Unity is divine. No wonder it is so rare and impossible. We need God to help us, to give us what it takes to join in one vision, move past our conflicts, and offer up our gifts.

I have become committed to praying for the possibility of 'us,' offering the gifts God's given me, and learning to engage in healthy, productive conflict resolution. I'm surrendering my life to God's vision for the world.

 Wanna be on God's team too? I hope so.

 

 

 

Image Credit:  http://2momstalk.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html