I recently listened to an interview of Les Snead, the General Manager of the 2021 National Football League Super-Bowl winning Los Angeles Rams. The interview was intriguing for several reasons. First, the interview reminded me that all of the action is not on the field. Most interviews in sports are of players, not the leaders and decision-makers on the sidelines or in the corporate headquarters. Learning about the level of preparation, discipline and sheer work that it took to build a championship level team was truly astounding. The success that the Rams enjoyed last year was engineered in part by decisions that Mr. Snead has been making over the past ten years. Second, the interview reminded me hat none of us become who we are or achieve what we do without significant help from others. Mr. Snead credited football with raising him. Born to a single mother, he never met his father. But he said that he had a series of coaches and mentors who fathered him, and he learned something from every single one of them.

One of the men he said who had a decisive impact on his development was Arthur Blank, the owner of the Atlanta Falcons and the co-founder of Home Depot. Mr. Snead said that every time Mr. Blank walked into a meeting and sat down at the conference table, he would always ask the same question: “so what’s the elephant in the room?” Mr. Snead said that he is convinced that repeatedly asking that question is one of the reasons for Home Depot’s success—and one of the reasons for his personal and the Rams’ organizational success. To win, you gotta deal with the elephant in the room.

According to one definition, the phrase “the elephant in the room” is a “a metaphorical idiom in English for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable and is personally, socially, or politically embarrassing, controversial, inflammatory, or dangerous.” It’s the big stuff that no one talks about, even though it’s staring us in the face. All of us have perfected the art of ignoring, denying, or rationalizing uncomfortable truths. We ignore the elephants in the room so well that it usually takes someone who is unfamiliar with our environment to point out something that everyone in the environment no longer sees.

12 years ago when our church first moved into our present location, the building was in horrible disrepair. It had potential, but only to the eyes of faith. To almost everyone else, it looked like what it was: a large empty warehouse with mildew in the walls, rusted out pipes in the bathrooms, and ripped up carpet on the floor. We didn’t have the resources to make all of the necessary repairs at once, so we made repairs as our resources allowed.

Progress was slow. Eventually, we addressed the mildew. Then the pipes. I decided to wait on the carpet. One of Deacons suggested that we apply duck tape to the places where the carpet was ripped or stretched and keep it moving. I agreed. So we did. And after a while, I forgot that the duck tape was there. A year later, a guest walked up to me after church and said “I really loved the service. But I’m going to need y’all to get some new carpet lol.” At first I was angered by his words. Then I was embarrassed. But after awhile all I could do was start laughing. Because as I looked around the sanctuary, there was duck tape EVERYWHERE!!! We could have started a duck tape store. But the duck tape had been there so long that I no longer saw it!

Question: what issue or problem do you have that has been around so long that you no longer see it, although its pretty obvious to everyone else?

Ignoring the elephants in the room is a recipe for failure. Problems just don’t disappear. They must be intentionally identified, defined, and addressed. This process is usually uncomfortable and embarrassing. It requires courage and honesty. But it a pre-requisite for personal and organizational success.

During his last meeting with his closets friends—the men who would become the nucleus of the early church—Jesus addressed the elephant that was in the room. After they had shared a meal, and Jesus had offered them encouraging and affirming words, he drops a hammer. In Mark 14:17-21, he says

After sunset he came with the Twelve. As they were at the supper table eating, Jesus said, “I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to betray me, one who at this moment is eating with me.”

19Stunned, they started asking, one after another, “It isn’t me, is it?”

He said, “It’s one of the Twelve, one who eats with me out of the same bowl. In one sense, it turns out that the Son of Man is entering into a way of treachery well-marked by the Scriptures—no surprises here. In another sense, the man who turns him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man—better never to have been born than do this!”

It was hard to tell them. But it was important to tell them. Jesus wanted them to know that he was aware of the treachery in his midst. It wasn’t going to stop his assignment or derail his mission. But neither was he going to allow the matter to sit unaddressed at the head of the table. Later, he would even tell the man who did betray him to hurry up and get it over with.

Jesus gives us a shining example of leadership that we all should aspire to emulate. Being a Christian does not mean that we avoid issues using fake empathy and cheap compassion as excuses. Let’s ask God for the wisdom and the courage to deal with the hard and important issues that are staring each of us in the face.

Doing so will help us win championships.