Together

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Together

Life is about people; about sharing life with people; living life with people. You can’t live a really satisfying life without others. One of the big myths of the Western world is that life is all about you, about self. It’s not. Life is for sharing. To enjoy life, it’s essential to work well together with other people, even when it’s hard work!

Together We’re Stronger

In April 2010, the FA (Football Association in England) launched a campaign with some of the players to highlight the charities the FA were supporting. The campaign was called ‘Together We’re Stronger.’ The campaign was also launched to say that everyone in England needed to be together to give England any chance in the 2010 World Cup. Sadly for England, it didn’t help the football team! But the campaign did help the charities!

Life Is For Sharing (2mins 51secs)

In 2009, T-Mobile had an advert campaign, filmed at Liverpool Street Station called ‘Life is for Sharing’. The idea was to do a ‘flash mob’ style dance routine, started by one ‘commuter’ and then joined in with by many other ‘commuters’. You can watch the video at the YouTube link below, or direct link – https://youtu.be/mUZrrbgCdYc

The video can’t really help but bring a smile to your face, as loads of people dance together, join in, cheer, or just watch on enjoying the dance. This is a great dance routine, but it needs people to actually do the dance. Or imagine performing the dance but no-one watching. What makes the dance is people doing the dance and people watching the dance. Life is for sharing…

Emperor Penguins (4mins 14secs)

Direct Link for the BBC Earth – Emperor Penguins – https://youtu.be/MfstYSUscBc

The Emperor Penguins are incredible. Not only do they live in an incredibly cold place in the Antarctic (down to -70 degrees Celsius!) they also work together to protect their babies. While the females go fishing, the male penguins protect the young – and each other. As the wind buffets them and the cold batters them, the penguins gradually shift round and take it in turn to be warm in the middle, and to go around the edge, protecting the others. They work together and in this working together, they protect, help and support each other. No penguin can go it alone. If one decided not to be part of the pack, their young penguin would die, and very likely they would too.

The Bible

The Bible has a lot to say about people working together. There’s a book written by someone called Solomon who was described as the wisest person that ever lived (apart from Jesus!). Here’s what he said in a book called Ecclesiastes:

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4.9-12, The Bible

The Chilean Mining Accident

On 5 August 2010 in a place called Copiapó in Chile, there was a mining accident. It took 70 days for the 33 men to be brought to the surface. While in the mine, the men worked together. The man who became the unofficial leader underground, Luis Urzúa “credited majority decision-making for the trapped men’s good esprit de corps and dedication to their common goal. “You just have to speak the truth and believe in democracy”, he said. “Everything was voted on … We were 33 men, so 16 plus one was a majority.” (Wikipedia, accessed Feb 2019). The Daily Mail (accessed Feb 2019) in the UK also reported that, “A deep religious faith powered this rescue; miners and families and rescuers alike believe their prayers were answered.” 

End Thought

Working together is incredibly important and powerful. Like the Bible says, two is better than one and when there’s three together it’s even more powerful. Christians believe that when people agree with God, that life totally changes and it brings a transformation to you, people around you and life itself. Christians believe that God is the only real way to truly enjoy life. But whether you believe in God or not, the truth is that we need each other. So make a decision to work with other people and work well. Your life may even depend on it 🙂