It’s interesting how sports writers spin their stories. This year’s WNBA made it to the forefront of popularity thanks mostly to two rookies: Caitlyn Clark (Indiana Fever) and Angel Reese (Chicago Sky). Game highlights were spun to sound as if Clark or Reese did it all, scored every basket, blocked every shot, forced every turnover, and passed to some invisible no-name who happened to be running on the court at the same time.
This is nothing new.
In 1993, the Toronto Blue Jays made it to the World Series, playing against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Jays were leading the series three to two but game six was seeing the Phillies rally with a 6-5 score heading into the ninth. What appeared to be a sure win for them would have forced game seven.
Thirty-three year old left fielder, Joe Carter, stepped to the plate for the Jays. With two runners on base, “Carter took two balls, then two strikes. Then he cracked a low slider hard toward the left-field pole. “Ninety-nine times out of a hundred,” he said later, “I hook that pitch way foul.” But this time, he didn’t. The ball swerved right and disappeared over the wall.”1
On this day in 1993, the Blue Jays won their second straight World Series championship with a score of 8-6. Headlines, though, said things like, “Toronto Blue Jay Joe Carter wins World Series with ninth‑inning home run.”
Wait a minute! Joe Carter won the World Series all by himself? My research found that there were 38 players on the Blue Jays roster that year. Nine of those players were on the field for half the game and the other half, they took their turns at bat. Over 52,000 were watching that day. They know that were seven other runs that scored. This wasn’t the Joe Carter Show.
Now, I mean nothing negative or disparaging towards Joe Carter. He didn’t write the news articles. The problem is that it makes it sound like one person did it all. This isn’t true in basketball. It’s not true in baseball. And it’s certainly not true among Christians.
1 Corinthians 3:5-7 asks, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? (6) I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (7) So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”
Paul was the “star” of the New Testament, second only to Jesus, with Peter coming in a close third. Because Paul authored so many of the New Testament books, we see his name a lot. But Paul never took a bow, claiming what great things he had accomplished. Instead, he put himself on the same plane as others.
Paul saw himself as just another cog in God’s wheel. He didn’t think he was special or better than everyone else. Throughout his writings, he frequently named others who were colaborers and sang their praises for the work they did and the blessing they were to him.
We can take a good lesson from Paul. Yes, there are always going to be those that might 
be more recognizable in God’s work than others, just because of their jobs. But it takes the TEAM of believers to get anything accomplished. It takes every man, woman, boy, and girl doing their God-given tasks to get the Lord’s work accomplished.
As we serve the Lord, always remember what 1 Corinthians 3:9 says. “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.”
1https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/carter-homers-to-win-world-series
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