What a sober moment to realize you're not on the same team any more. Something or someone moved and the arrangement isn't the same strategic one you thought. Whether the sandlot, stadium, caucus room, church, dinner table, or neighborhood, few let-downs weigh as heavily as when you realize there's been a shift. The group or ideal or activity with which you've been aligned, to which you've given so much of your life isn't what it was. So, what do we do when we realize we're not on the same team anymore?
Your world-view will define it, if you want to get right down to it. If you're a secularist, that is, an adherent to the ever-shifting cultural layout, or even a nominal (Google that one if you want to know what it means), you'll just go find another team. Hey, it's a changing world and we just need to possess the most current model---spouse, circle of friends, smart phone, brand, vehicle, or maybe even church. We might even go with the flow here and line up with another political party if their current bullet-list isn't resonating with pop culture. In this world the answer about no longer being on the same team is an easy one: just change teams.
There's some in-between wiggle room in the world-view thing these days too. There are dozens of hybrids with arrows and pointers to help us decide what to do when the team lines get a little blurred. There are biblical humanists, secular biblicists, evolutonary creationists, freedom of choice lifers, and fifty plus shades of action to re-align my personal commitments when they seem out of sync. It's a DIY world and we've become adept at navigating it.
My biblical worldview lines up my affiliations. So, let's deal with the obvious. First, church isn't a team. It's a body and the parts are placed where they are by God. So, if I'm out of kilter with my church, my first question must be "when did I move?". Then I must get back where I was, where He placed me. Second, marriage isn't a team either. It's a covenant. I don't just walk away. My spouse and I review the covenant, discover what makes it work, where the weak points are, and then renew it till we're both where we're supposed to be. I mean, get real. We're seriously lowering the bar if we reduce HIs church and marriage to the dynamics of team-work.
Every other affiliation in my life---friendships, politics, work, family life, social commitments, civic involvements, music, where I spend my money, the places I go---all reflect adherence to the biblical standard, my worldview. If my politics don't line up with Scripture, I am in political, and spiritual, error. And, right on down the line, into every sub-set of my personal life. If and when I discover that I'm out of sync with the strategic partnerships He has arranged in my life, then my first move is to discover if I've moved. If not, then my job is to engage that affiliation with all my might to move it to where it was when I signed on.
I'm blown away by 1 Corinthians 12:18. I may be too literal here, but there it is, my biblical world-view showing again. Paul wrote, "But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose" (1 Corinthians 12:18, ESV). Yes, he could have been writing about the physical body at creation, God's placement of each part exactly where it needed to be so that the body could function. Or, he could have been writing about me being a part of the spiritual body, and being planted in life at this time and this place to influence everything around me. I'll opt for the latter.
Christian. Don't just change teams every minute. Tough it out, endure, engage, and influence. God put you right there right now for a reason.