The Power of a Having a Team

My husband and I watched the movie “Cars” on DVD last Saturday night.  I know I am a little behind the times, since this movie came out in 2006, but I am so glad we watched it!  It was light-hearted, cute, and funny; it just left you with a happy feeling in your heart!

I often take away life lessons from watching movies and there were many life lessons to be gleaned from the movie Cars, but the lesson that hit home the most, with me, was the need for us to not try and do it/ do life alone!  At the beginning of the movie, that was the mindset of  the “hotshot rookie race car Lightning McQueen,” but by the end of the movie he was a changed man/a changed car, as the result of some unexpected and unwanted life experiences, like that of spending time in “Radiator Springs”! 

For those of you who have watched the movie, you will remember that at the end of the movie, Lightning McQueen did finally make it to the biggest race of his life, the “Piston Cup” and this time he had a team!  Doc Hudson, also known as Hudson Hornet in his race days long gone by, was now Lightning’s crew chief and the others from Radiator Springs made up his pit crew and his fans, that stood by him and cheered him on!  The part that hit me the most was when Doc Hudson, unexpectantly,  showed up and said—to the tired, almost ready to give up Lightning McQueen—“I didn’t come all this way for you to quit now!”  Doc Hudson’s unexpected presence and words of encouragement and/or coaching infused a fresh “want to” in Lightning McQueen to stay in the race and do his best! Doc Hudson also saw things from a different perspective and had experience of his own that he could then pass on to Lightning.  He gave him words of instruction and Lightning followed it and he won the race.  Actually, he could have won the race but since he now had a new, tender and caring heart and was no longer consumed with winning, he went back and helped his injured friend cross the finish line first!

Applying the movie to our lives today, do you try to do life alone or do you have a team that you lean on “letting them do their work/do what they do best” (as it was stated in the movie), freeing you up to just do your part “with a little help from your friends” as the words of the song go?!  How often we, women, are exhausted and stressed because we are trying to do it all, and trying to do it all ourselves.  Oh, the beauty of learning to lean on God, (and the husband He has given us, if you are one who is married) for instruction and words of help and encouragement, for our lives!  I would not be where I am today without God in my life and without the husband He has given me!

Application Questions:

1. Who has God put in your life to be part of “your team” to help you through life?
2. Are you leaning on God and others to help you through life or are you trying to go it alone?
3. What is at the root of trying to be a “Lone Ranger” if that is the case for you?
4. What gifts and talents has God given you, so that you can be a team member [helper, encourager ect.] in someone elses life?
5. Who, in your life, may need a word of encouragement or an extra dose of love today?

Wherever you may be and whatever you may be going through, know that God loves you dearly and loves it when we turn to Him for love, help, and encouragement.  And know that as a child of God, we have a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on from heaven (see Hebrews 12:1).  So keep going, dear one, stay the course, stay in the race, and don’t give up!  It’s all going to be worth it in the end!