Word for Today - 13 July 2026
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“One standing alone can be…defeated, but two can…conquer.” Ecclesiastes 4:12 TLB
Be a team player
Solomon wrote: “One standing alone can be…defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.” What Solomon is saying is this: “Be a team player.” Deuteronomy 32 speaks of one person chasing 1,000 and two putting 10,000 to flight (v. 30). The lesson is that two working together will be ten times more effective than one going solo. Teams create synergy. The best explanation of synergy is that a hand is more effective than five fingers working independently of each other. When the press interviewed Edmund Hillary regarding the key to his success in being the first to reach the top of Mount Everest, his response was inspiring: “Our greatest strength on Everest in 1953 was our very strong team spirit. Individually, as mountaineers, we were not particularly expert people. We were competent climbers, but we worked together, and we were determined that someone should get to the top. All of us, of course, wanted to be that one, but it was even more important that someone in the group reached the summit. In modern-day climbing, this team spirit is not quite so common. There are many more prima donnas in the modern climbing fraternity, people who have great skills and great individualism but who may not work together as enthusiastically as we did.” The truth is that no individual is as smart and strong as all of us are as a group. Or to put it in the words of Dr. John Maxwell: “Teamwork makes the dream work.” So be willing to sacrifice your personal agenda for the greater good that can be accomplished only by a team.
Be a team player
Solomon wrote: “One standing alone can be…defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.” What Solomon is saying is this: “Be a team player.” Deuteronomy 32 speaks of one person chasing 1,000 and two putting 10,000 to flight (v. 30). The lesson is that two working together will be ten times more effective than one going solo. Teams create synergy. The best explanation of synergy is that a hand is more effective than five fingers working independently of each other. When the press interviewed Edmund Hillary regarding the key to his success in being the first to reach the top of Mount Everest, his response was inspiring: “Our greatest strength on Everest in 1953 was our very strong team spirit. Individually, as mountaineers, we were not particularly expert people. We were competent climbers, but we worked together, and we were determined that someone should get to the top. All of us, of course, wanted to be that one, but it was even more important that someone in the group reached the summit. In modern-day climbing, this team spirit is not quite so common. There are many more prima donnas in the modern climbing fraternity, people who have great skills and great individualism but who may not work together as enthusiastically as we did.” The truth is that no individual is as smart and strong as all of us are as a group. Or to put it in the words of Dr. John Maxwell: “Teamwork makes the dream work.” So be willing to sacrifice your personal agenda for the greater good that can be accomplished only by a team.
