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Henry Ford is famous for saying, “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

When a team has the same mindset, effort and drive, then success will follow. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they will win. Success isn’t always determined by the score but by the team’s closeness and how well they fought. When every team member moves forward together as one body, the team will succeed. However, there are stumbling blocks for teams, and when a team gets tripped up by these, it stops moving forward together.

One stumbling block is hatred. Hatred usually stems from an event, circumstance, or situation that hurt us. When a teammate has hatred for another teammate, the team body begins to suffer, ultimately preventing the entire team from being successful.

God hates seeing division in His church body. He created everything to be in community, and when there is hatred between people, community cannot exist. The Bible says that when one person has hatred for another, they are blindfolded and living in darkness. If we tried to live blindfolded, we would run into and trip over everything. One cannot succeed in darkness. But that is what hatred does to us. God says it makes our eyes, hearts, minds and everything around us go dark.

What is the solution? How do we stay away from hatred when people genuinely do things that hurt us and make us angry? We listen to the words and encouragement of Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.” And 1 Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

We walk in the light by loving no matter what, forgiving quickly as Jesus forgives us, being kind and compassionate, and moving forward together as a team.