BY HUNTER GREENE

If you have ever run a three-legged race, you know how complicated it gets when you have to rely on someone else to succeed. If one person wants to go fast and the other person wants to go slow, it leads to disaster. If one person feels they must go right and the other person decides to go left, then both may end up on the ground. The only way that two people tied together can successfully move forward in a three-legged race is by moving at the same pace in the same direction.
Life in the Church is much like a three-legged race. Christians are bound together at the hip by the eternal bond of the Holy Spirit, and we must pursue Christ and the Kingdom of God. However, when one of us wants to lay down and quit, it slows down the progress of the whole congregation. When one person gets jealous of another and decides to go another direction, we trip and fall. We must realize that we are eternally connected to our brothers and sisters in Christ whether we like it or not. So in 2018, we need to commit to striving for unity and working together with each other in order to see our communities, our county, and our nation feel the presence of God.
1 Corinthians 3:1-11 reads, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
Paul had to deal with division and discord as well. He likens these people as spiritual babies that whine and cry and must be fed. If we are all honest, we all act like this from time to time. We get mad if we are asked to help plant as Paul did. We get mad if we have to help water as Apollos did. We even get mad if we don’t see the increase we think we deserve. Rather than focusing on the will of God, we focus on all the ways we didn’t get our way.
We must understand that we are “laborers together with God.” God is already doing His part. Christians all around the world are already doing their part. Christ has already laid the foundation in which we can build for His Kingdom. Everything that we need to be successful as apostles and missionaries of Christ is already provided for us. We just have to get to work.
While 2018 is still young, I want to challenge you to get involved in your church. Even if you already cook for the potluck and do crafts at Bible School, see if you can expand your role and do more for the Lord this year. Start new ministries and have more food drives. Go serve at more soup kitchens and pray more with those who are hurting. Send more “Get Well Soon” cards and give more hugs. The Bible tells us that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. There are so many lost and hurting people out in our world today, and they need a Church that is ready to strap up their boots, put on their gloves, and get to work. Don’t waste this year by idly sitting on a pew each week. Go be an ambassador of Christ by being the Church!
(The Solution Column is provided by Pastor Brandon Young of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate, Hunter Greene.)