Why Can’t You Guys Get Together?
Charlie Brown and Lucy were constantly picking at each other. Lucy was pretty much a bully and Charlie was a wimp. You probably remember that Charlie tried so many times to kick a football for a field goal only to have Lucy pull the ball away at the last moment and Charlie went flying through the air and landed on his backside.
My favorite one happened after Lucy did another of her bullying stunts. She shook her fist in Charlie’s face and warned him to watch out or he would get a knuckle sandwich. As she walked away in her bully victory, Charlie looked at his own hand and remarked, “Why can’t you guys get together like that?”
This illustrates a true point. One finger might do a little damage to another person, but if you want to do a lot of damage you would need them to work together as a fist. The power of the fist is the togetherness of each finger. Together they are exponentially stronger than merely adding up the strengths of each individual finger.
Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church because they were not together. “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there by no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in t he same judgment.” (I Corinthians 1:10).
In chapter 12, he used the body analogy to tell them what it means to be together. “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” (verse 12). He then said that each one has a strength to contribute to the whole; one is a foot, another a hand, another an eye, and still another an ear. The human body is as strong as the togetherness of each part.
As we continue this year’s theme, we will consider how we are all climbing the mountain with everyone else. There is great strength and energy in a group climbing that will not be found in a single climber. There are many advantages to climbing in a group as opposed to climbing alone.
If you climb alone, there will be no one with you to pick you up if you fall (Ecclesiastes 4:10). Those who climb together help each other with the burdens along the way (Galatians 6:2). When you climb together, there will be those who will help restore to the right path when you stray (Galatians 6:1). When the climb gets more difficult, you will find someone to encourage you with a good word (Proverbs 12:25). There are many more reasons to climb the mountain together rather than attempting to scale all by yourself. There is great value in a climbing group.
— Mike Johnson
