I’m grateful for wise friends.
I’ve been thinking about Shared Sacrifice and teamwork. I got focused on each person’s individual responsibility to the team, a commitment to sacrifice personal comfort to accomplish a bigger mission.
One of my wise friends suggested it’s a two-way road. He’s right, of course. Teams are relationships, and one-sided relationships don’t last. So what’s the team’s responsibility?
According to my friend, one thing a team owes each member is accountability,
Accountability has a bad image, I think, because it’s too frequently used as an excuse to judge and condemn. In the name of accountability we appoint ourselves sheriff of others’ behavior, lurking around corners to catch ’em breaking our rules.
True accountability, of course, happens in a covenant relationship when everyone’s in it together, aligned toward a common mission, clear on and agreed to the principles of operation. You don’t get that on An All-Star Team because it’s not really a team.
On a team, accountability isn’t about gotcha. The point isn’t catching someone doing wrong; it’s helping and encouraging everyone to do their best, to do right, to be part of the big story of advancing the mission. It’s never about forcing or coercing someone onto your path. Accountability means doing what’s needed, in an atmosphere of grace, to help a teammate get back on the path she said she wanted to travel.
Accountability is hard. It’s long-term. It requires wisdom, and patience, and discernment, and courage, all the things we really can’t summon on our own. Which is why we need teammates.
And Jesus.
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Today’s blastoff day for the last leg of FREEDOM TOUR ’18.
Our COLORADO MOUNTAIN TOUR team gathers this morning to load bikes and gear (a LOT of gear!) and head for the high country. Tomorrow our cyclists will begin a 4-day, 280-mile loop in Buena Vista.
I hope you enjoy following along.