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The Compassion in Teamwork
Fred Tudor
The Compassion in Teamwork
PSALMS 145:8—The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
When looking at the character trait of compassion the definition that comes to the mind of most people is to sympathize. You have probably heard a person at some point proclaim that “I don’t what your sympathy!” What an idiotic thing to say!! That particular person surely could not understand the importance of sympathy, and therefore
compassion. The act of feeling or sharing another person’s emotions and/or their experiences is a treasured sign of maturity and selflessness. The implication is that if I don’t want to have someone build me up with their ability to sympathize, then I see no need to be sympathetic. If God is full of compassion, you better get you some! The
common fallacy related to emotional character traits is that there is this huge difference between men and women-- boys and girls. There are some truths to the belief that women are more emotional than men. The problem comes when a boy child is “taught” that showing emotions is somehow a weakness. Comments like “I’ll give you something to cry about” or “suck it up like a man” or my favorite “quit crying like a girl” are
all ways that young boys are brainwashed to hide and/or not show their emotions. These societal pressures create men who think that compassion is for sissies, suckers and soft males. Because they don’t see it as a part of their learned behavior, they perpetuate this non-sense to their sons and daughters.
This behavior is sometimes shown at early ages when elementary children want to portray an image of indifference. They already are beginning to say things like, “I don’t care what so and so thinks “, when the reality is that they care very much what people think about them. This leads to believing that compassion is not only something I am not going to give or show but I don’t care if I receive it either. This hardens our young
folks to the point of being “unfeeling” to the troubles and pain of others. They truly believe that it is not their business to care for others. The hard nature of our young people has not been monopolized by the males only, but has become exhibited more and more by our young ladies as well. This can obviously hinder a participant in a team sport.
You must always care and have compassion for your teammate and even for the opponent sometimes. The need to feel sympathy for a teammate who may not be as
talented or who may not play as many minutes in the game is essential for good teams. All teams need for the less talented players to practice hard and push the more talented players to improve in preparation for the contest. Teammates not only need to put themselves in each others shoes but also do whatever is necessary to spread the feeling that each role on the team is equally important. The reality is that we all win as
a team as well as all losing as a team. Compassion will motivate all the individuals to put the team first. Here is the easiest example of the mercy and grace that is God. He felt such compassion for the world that he sent his only begotten Son. Imagine that, sending your son to suffer a terrible death for the good of some one else. We need to follow His lead and not be tricked by the enemy into believing that compassion and/or sympathy is some how a negative emotion. It is literally one of the most mature and selfless traits any person can possess.
Fred Tudor
Fred Tudor is a eighteen year employee of the Cincinnati Public Schools as a Health and Physical Education teacher. He has been coaching at the high school level in Greater Cincinnati since graduating from Wittenberg University in 1979. His coaching stints includes stops at his alma mater Walnut Hills High School, Hughes Center High School, and from 1990 until present coaches at Wyoming High School. His church home is Cincinnati Bibleway Church in Madisonville, Apostles James and Grace Blue Pastors.
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