Team with God Published March 4, 2008 By Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Bruce Brewer 151st ARW Chaplain's Office SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- A favorite hobby of my late grandfather, Ervin Christensen (1901-1954), from Hooper, Utah was competing in horse-pulling contests. Horse pulling got its start when one teamster would challenge another to a test of strength between their teams. They hooked their horses to a heavy stoneboat, a log or anything else that might be handy. The object was, and still is, to see whose team can pull the most. Grandfather Chris¬tensen had a special talent of training his draft horses with blocks of concrete and won numerous awards at fairs and rodeos. There's a story about one horse pull where Billy pulled 2,500 pounds and Barney pulled 3,000 pounds. Joined together, how much do you think they could pull? You would think they could pull 5,500 pounds. Not so! Believe it or not, when teamed together Billy and Barney actually pulled over 10,500 pounds. How did they do it? The principle is called synergism ... the power of teamwork! It basically means much more can be done in a team effort than can be accomplished alone. One of the teachings of the Bible is that God wants to team up with us and help us accomplish great things. There's a Bible verse that basi¬cally says that with God's power working in us, we can do much, much more than any¬thing we could ever imagine. (Ephesians 3:20). There's no doubt about it, a team is capable of accomplishing things that no individual, no matter how multi-talented, could ever do alone. Teamwork increases the effective¬ness of each member on the team. We can accomplish great things when we pull together with each other and with God.