The strength of the pack is the wolf. The strength of the wolf is the pack.

I love the power of a good, well-told story .  Over the weekend I, and based on the box office numbers most of you, went to see the movie The Jungle Book. 

One phrase in the movie replayed in my mind long after the credits rolled.  This earworm burrowed its way deep into my heart:

The law of the jungle: 

Now this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky.  The wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.  As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back.  For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.

In this adaptation of Kipling's The Jungle Book, Mowgli is a young boy who has been raised as part of the wolf pack in the jungle.  His "guide" is a panther named Bagheera who is training and encouraging Mowgli to become like the wolves and to not use his man cub "tricks" in the jungle.  Mowgli tries his best to run like a wolf, howl like a wolf, and think like a wolf, but he can never quite be like them.  At the end of the movie, there is a beautiful interchange between Bagheera and Mowgli.  Mowgli wants to join the rest of the wolf pack in the fight against Shere Khan but Bagheera stops him.  When Mowgli begins to protest, saying he wants to fight just like the wolves, Bagheera entreats him not to fight like a wolf, but to fight like a man.

What Bagheera realized through the story is that the strength of Mowgli wasn't in how good of a wolf he could be, but rather how good of a Mowgli he could be.  He recognized that Mowgli, trying to be a wolf, would never be enough.  He'd never be effective.  Ultimately, he knew that Mowgli,  as a wolf, would never survive... 

              ...and either would the pack. 

The strength of the pack is the WOLF. 

It takes all kinds.   Paul talks about this very same concept in the book of Romans.

"For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."  Romans 12:4-5

We belong to each other.   

We need the givers and the savers.  We need the left brains and the right brains.  We need the attention-to-details person and  the visionary-big-picture person.  We need the old and young.  

And everyone in between.

We need you- and whatever beautiful nuances that come with all that you are. 

In a world where it didn't happen if it wasn't posted on social media, it's far too easy to bemoan the fact that we're a clumsy man cub when it looks like everyone around us is a cunning wolf. 

The whole is only as strong as the sum of its parts. 

The pack is only as strong as each wolf.

"We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; ⁷ if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸ if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully." Romans 12:6-8


So, my brothers and sisters.  You do you.  The pack needs you.  I need you.

The strength of the wolf is the PACK.
If you're a man cub living in the jungle, one thing you'll realize quickly is that even the strongest of beasts can't survive alone.  

We need each other.  

And we do live in a jungle, do we not?  Thoughts of increasing financial burdens, the growing to-do list, worrying about the future, reeling from the unplanned circumstances all can feel like night in the jungle with unfamiliar noises interrupting our would-be sleep.

We may crave independence, but we are nourished and sustained by community.  

We need each other.  We need our pack. 

"Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."  Ecclesiastes 4:12

The car will breakdown.  The doctor will speak those life changing words.  The baby will be born.  The phone will ring.  The spouse won't come home.

Life in the jungle can be vicious and unrelenting and ruthless. 
And that's precisely why we need our pack.

The strength of the wolf is the pack.

The pack is there to surround you when the enemy is attacking you.  To encourage you to pick up the speed when you're lagging behind.  To fight for you when you're too weak to fight.  And to simply walk beside you when the road gets long. 

The bare necessities of life

Forget all the striving to be just like  (fill in the blank).   You make an awful version of them anyways.  You be the very best fully alive version of you. 

And then find your pack. 

Your pack will be full of people who are strong and loyal and unique and difficult and sometimes rather annoying- and you will fit right in.   

But really, if you have these two things? 

You have the simple bare necessities of life!

• -What aspects  of your character/personality/gifting do you try to down play or ignore because it's "different"?
• -What is one thing you can do this week to walk more fully in who you were created to be?
• -Do you have a pack?  People you are intentional about sharing life with?  If not, be intentional about connecting with people you'd like to have in your pack sometime this week. 
• -If you have a pack, reach out to them this week- let them know you are thankful they're in your pack.