However, many people have discovered that going solo isn’t everything it’s purported to be. The life of a hermit can be a lonely existence. Even the 1960s British pop band called Herman’s Hermits consisted of five “hermits.”
Back in 1969, a rock group called “Three Dog Night” recorded a hit tune called, “One.” But its lyrics didn’t exalt the virtues of oneness. See for yourself:
“One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do
Two can be as bad as one
It’s the loneliest number since the number one….
‘Cause one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do
One is the loneliest number…worse than two.”
Kind of a mournful message, but it seems to be reminding us that if you want to get the best out of life, don’t try doing it on your own. Long before “One” hit the airwaves, a very different song by jazz musician Louis Armstrong called “It Takes Two to Tango” agreed. Its lyrics observed:
“You can sail on a ship by yourself
Take a nap or a nip by yourself
You can get into debt on your own.
There’s a lot of things that you can do alone!
But…Takes two to tango, two to tango
Two to really get the feeling of romance…do the dance of love.”
Indeed, we need two to accomplish many things. Take sports, for example. You can go fishing by yourself, yes. And you can play golf alone, but where’s the fun in that – unless you enjoy rewarding yourself with multiple mulligans? Try playing tennis, ping-pong or pickleball without a partner.
Some people seem to enjoy dining alone, but eating out usually is more enjoyable when it’s a shared experience. When traveling, the sights seem more enjoyable with someone else. An exception might be riding with a chronic ‘backseat driver,’ who thinks a car should have two steering wheels and two brake pedals. But that’s a different matter.
In the workplace, some things can be accomplished successfully alone, but in most cases, more can be done with two or more people collaborating. They can pool their collective talents and resources, bounce ideas off one another, see problems from different perspectives, encourage and challenge one another.
Most of all, during difficult times, two or more people can provide needed support that one person might lack. As the Old Testament says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up?... A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
Then there’s the value of ‘creative friction,’ working past disagreements to arrive at solutions that individual members of a team might not have discovered on their own. I’ve always appreciated Proverbs 27:17, which says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” I’ve seen this principle in action not only vocationally but also spiritually.
We should never forget the last thing Jesus Christ told His followers before He ascended to heaven after His resurrection. He said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Out of His small band of followers who spent time with Him 24/7 for three years, Jesus wanted to see multitudes of disciples – growing, learning and reproducing believers who would turn the world upside down. This indeed has happened, but it wasn’t an individual pursuit then – and it’s not now.
Although we all are uniquely created by God, He has always intended for us to function together as the “body of Christ.” As the apostle Paul told believers in first-century Corinth, “Now the body is not made up of one part but of many…. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).
There’s a lot more to that passage, but the point is we’re not here to live for ourselves. We’re here first of all to honor and serve God, and second, to join with other devoted followers of Christ to be and to share His Good News to a lost world that desperately needs to know about it.
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