Collaboration is never a natural event. Unless there is something extra – experiential trust, chemistry, or a shared passion – you do not find collaboration that is anything more than a name assigned to two activities put together. Yet when collaboration occurs, look-out! People working together, really working together, bring something that is far greater than the sum of the parts. Amazingly, it is a miracle that we are invited to participate in every day.
I love following the Yankees saga as a baseball team. They are always filled with potential that defies one’s baseball imagination. Yet history as shown that they have worked as a team as often as they have been unique parts thrown together with the performance being less than any one following the team thought possible. The ups and downs have taken on a new twist this year with two stars that came into the majors together as close knit friends being united for the first time on the same team. The question that sits pregnant without an answer is their relationship.
In the years since they came up they have been at two extremes. First they were close friends. Then, separated by remarks made by one about the other, they traveled in separate circles. Simple words broke what many thought couldn’t be broken.
The question sits waiting for be answered. Can the relationship be repaired? Can they build something special? Can they truly collaborate to be the best combination in the history of baseball?
Our forefathers make a decision that separated us from God. We were painted into a corner before we were born and our actions since then haven’t improved the situation. In this messy space God has taken the step of offering you and I full restoration and the opportunity to collaborate in a new creation in the world in which we live.
The opportunity is there, and “anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.” (John 3.21) Question is, will we make this reality? It takes two.
