Passing the Baton

The body is a unit though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they for one body. So it is with Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

Years ago, years and years ago when I was in high school, I dated a boy, Matthew, who was on the track team at another school. He ran cross country in the fall, indoor track during the winter and outdoor track in the spring. Among his events was a relay race. In all his other events he relied only on himself but in that event, he was part of a team. Through him I learned the extreme importance of the anchor and the baton. The anchor has to finish the race. He of course, hopes that his team has set him up for an easy run into the tape but that isn't always the case. Sometimes the anchor has the unenviable task of having to make up for other runners lost time. That is second only in importance to the hand off of the baton.

In one meet one of Matthew's teammates dropped the baton. Feel free to gasp here as that was apparently a monumental moment. Matthew's coach was a retired Marine who had no time for the boys weaknesses in any area and certainly no patience with a dropped baton. For the next week each one of the four of them carried a baton throughout their entire school day. If the coach saw them without it there would be huge consequences. Only one boy dropped it but they were a team and if it could happen to one it could happen to any of them.

Sound familiar? “Carry each others burdens,” says Paul in Galatians 6:2. We are the body of Christ. If one part is weak, the others need to support it.

Picture the four boys during that week. They each carried a baton for a week for two reasons. One, to remind each one that he was part of the team and two that they learn the importance of the hand off. No one at that school had to ask if those boys were on the track team. Their extra appendage answered that question.

So what of us? Do we, who call ourselves Christians, live as a part of a whole? Or do we live to please ourselves? Live out our own agenda without thought to the consequences that means for those around us?

When people look at us, carrying our baton, as we wear a cross, carry a Bible or place a church sticker on our vehicle, when people see that, see our claim that we are part of a team, do they see us pulling for the other members of that same team? We must! What does it say to the rest of the world when we preach “love your enemies” and then shun our own team?