Can You Say UNITY, Boys & Girls?
After posting my earlier "Questions" entry, I had a wonderful time discussing how we see people with Richard. His question was something like, "Is there a specific verse that says God is already drawing people to Himself when we're talking together?" - and I told him I'd had lots of thoughts along those lines when it comes to evangelism and discipleship. Good stuff, leading to even better questions for our lives, I'm sure.
Then the morning's sermon was on Conflict, specifically family conflict and the importance of building peace through reconciliation. I don't remember much right now, except that I kept nodding and agreeing with what the Spirit was saying. Then - WHAM! - ever have one of those moments in a message where all the mental and emotional and social and spiritual faculties are tuned in and you get it in a really nasty, you-know-this-changes-things kind of way?
"Unity doesn't come from agreement, but from acceptance."
That's the gist of it anyway, loosely paraphrased from the sermon and the scripture. More important then agreement - because sooner or later we will disagree somewhere, won't we? - is the ability to accept each other, to forgive each other, to love each other. So this week, I'm going to dig into UNITY in the Bible, see how this played out in conflict across the biblical narrative. I'll check back in through the week, and invite anyone to play along. Can you say UNITY, boys and girls?
posted by Rick @ 6:52 PM
2 Comments:
We do it all the time, but the way we do it may be the issue. I can put on a front of agreeing all in the name of "acceptance" simply because I don't want the confilct, I don't want to offend, I don't want to rock the boat, or I don't want to be real about my thoughts or feelings.
I believe real unity is shown when you can be tranparent, share your point and agree to disagree if that's the case.
Sad part: all this is done mostly in personal relationships, not in "forums" such as talk radio or sided publications where the listeners or readers expect you to hold the party line or you're against us. To look for "unity" in these forums would simply mean agreement. But is that unilty? I guess that's your question. Does this make any sense or am I just trying to fill up your comment section with psycho-babble. PEACE
good stuff. unity has more to do with the things we agree on - what about the differences and diversity, can we be unified beyond those things, too? i'm sure i'll hit on the "agree to disagree thing", too - we'll see. thanks bruh.
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