What happens to the body when the heart does not receive a constant supply of fresh oxygen enriched blood?” From an Ole Seagulls perspective, probably some of the same things that happen in an individuals life without cooperation, “very little that is good and a lot that could be really really bad.”
Cooperation, working together toward a common goal, is a word that everyone uses and knows and, like the very blood that flow through our bodies to our heart, is taken for granted. Yet cooperation is as necessary to living life as the very blood that courses through our veins.
From conception to death and on into eternity cooperation is the necessary common thread. Is conception a singular activity or is it a cooperative activity? How many have given birth to themselves without the cooperation of others? Even in death does it not take the cooperation of others to handle the corporal remains and comfort those remaining behind?
For Christians, is not cooperation, working together toward a common goal, an inherent part of God’s plan for eternal salvation? Who could save themselves without the cooperation of Jesus with His Father and His sacrifice on the cross? Even then, does not God’s word indicate that the gift of eternal salvation involves the cooperation of those to be saved?
It tells us that “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” It goes on to say, “Repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” If God requires our cooperation with Him to believe, obey, repent, and be baptized for our eternal salvation is it logical to believe that cooperation is any less important between birth and eternity?
It’s cooperation within families, everyone working together toward a common goal that gets everyone up each day and off to school or work. At school it takes the cooperation of teachers, school administrators, and the taxpayers of the school district to provide the opportunity for learning to take place and yet, without the cooperation of the student, paying attention in class, doing assignments, etc. that opportunity can be wasted.
Cooperation is a two way street. To an Ole Seagull, the word “together” in its definition, “everyone working together toward a common goal,” would be more consistent with what cooperation is if it were spelled “twogether.” It is impossible to have cooperation without two or more people and a common goal.
The interesting thing is that getting two or more people is not normally the problem. The problem is on agreeing on the common goal. In school, work, and home, as individuals and nations there cannot be true cooperation with agreeing on the goal. How many relationships have failed and families broken apart because of the failure to cooperate in their preservation? How many wars have been fought over the failure of nations to cooperate? How many squander opportunities each day simply because they are not willing to cooperate with others? Sadly, in an Ole Seagull’s opinion, too many do just that.
In most cases cooperation, like most of the important things in life, takes effort. To paraphrase the words written by someone a lot wiser than an Ole Seagull it could be said, “Cooperation is patient, cooperation is kind and is not jealous; cooperation does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hope all things, endures all things.”
It has been said that “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” What kind of love can there be if there is not cooperation between the loved and the beloved? About the same as the quality of life one would have without cooperation with others. Now there’s a theme, “Life’s a lot fuller for those who love to cooperate with others.”
