Posts Tagged ‘#unity’

Unity

Posted in Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #beone, #disunityinthechurch, #standtogether, #thegoodnews, #unity, #unityinchrist, #unityofbelievers on January 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The great Greek storyteller, Aesop, has said,

“united we stand, divided we fall.”

Wise, if not simple words. Words that seem to echo in our ears and minds a bit more during this season as this current history is being written, lived. For, has it not felt like division has taken over is so many facets of our lives, from within society as a whole, to workplaces, to schools, to churches and within our family units as well?

The pandemic of the past two past years has interfered with our normal lives, hindering our travel, our social, recreational, educational, business lives, leaving the lonely even more alone, but also leaving families and loved ones to grieve separation … even separation that goes beyond walls and right to the grave.

Beyond the restrictions and vaccinations and documentations …

Beyond the illness, threats to illness and death …

Beyond the physical separation …

Beyond even loss of physical life …

division

has had a profoundly negative effect on us all these two years …

and it has spilled into every people group of society, from families, to work places, to circles of believers and into our churches.

Of division, the Bible does speak, but what it speaks more often of is unity, with an an emphasis on unity as believers.

It would seem that there is only one unity that matters, only one common thread that is woven into the lives of believers … and it has nothing to do with what many of us are speaking most often about these days …

that of our unity in Christ

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
1 Corinthians 1:10

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:1-5

These passages speak of unity in Christ.

So, here is a question for you, for me …

what do we spend our time with other believers speaking about?

Do we spend the majority of our time speaking about what is going on in the world of or do we spend our time speaking of what Christ is doing in our world?

Do we speak of what we have heard on the news, or what we have read in the Word?

Do we discuss those who are, or are not vaccinated … or do we unite in prayer for those who need the inoculation of the Spirit of God in their lives?

We, who are Christ-followers, have the Good News, the best news that world needs to hear. It is news that can heal, soothe, strengthen. It is news that we are commissioned to share with the weary world. News that changes lives.

The world will see Christ in us, how we live and talk, how we spend our money and in what we post on social media. It, they, will see Christ in how unified we are, as believers, in the things that matter … the matters of the soul.

May we, in these unprecedented times, not allow ourselves to lose each other over the things of earth, when we have been given the One who brought us the best news of all.

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What Brings us Together?

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #communitybuilding, #dwellinunity, #reneezellweger, #unity, #whatbringsustogether on February 16, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I love to go to the theatre to watch a movie. I love the darkened room, the crowd sitting around me, the buttery popcorn, the trailers (don’t get me started on people not showing up at the theatre until the trailers are done). I love it all!

That said, you won’t ever catch me watching an awards show … not the Academy Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, not even the Grammy Awards. For me, seeing a movie is all about my own enjoyment … I really don’t care if others enjoyed it.

The other day I clicked on a video from the Oscars … not sure exactly why, maybe it was because I had just watched the movie Miss. Potter (which I adored) starring Renée Zellweger. The video was the acceptance speech of Ms. Zellweger for her best actress award. In her speech she spoke all of the inevitable thank-yous, then she spoke of heros …

“Our heroes unite us … when we look to our heroes we agree and that matters.” Renée Zellweger

and I nodded, in agreement and appreciation of wise, community-building words.

A similar theme was shared when US President John F Kennedy spoke to the Canadian parliament, in 1961, on the relationship between the two countries, ” … what unites us is far greater than what divides us.”

Those are rarely worded themes in Hollywood, in the United States, in Canada, in our world today.

It is as though our human race is set on a course of self-destruction through the focus on our differences of thought, conviction, behaviour. We not only disagree, but we gather only those around us who agree with us, restricting our growth, our maturity, our ability to see things from others points of view … resulting in a stunting of our growth and (perhaps) a risking of the status of our mental health.

What if, rather than discussing our differences (on social media, at the water cooler, over coffee, etc) we talked about who inspires us and why.

As Ms. Zellweger’s words permeated my thoughts on my drive to work, I began to think about my heroes. The people who, though I largely do not know personally, yet inspire, model and bring wonder to my life. Just thinking about such people put a smile on my face, a joy in my heart and grit in my soul to do and be better. Positivity grew within simply thinking of these people.

Then I tried speaking of them to people, interjecting their stories into my conversations … you know what happened? Those I was speaking to began sharing the names, stories and lives of their heroes. We began sharing joy positivity, unity.

May we speak of our heroes, providing opportunities to find common ground in our unity, rather than in what tears us apart.

“how good and pleasant it is
when brothers and sister dwell in unity!”
Psalm 133:1

Just a few of my ‘heroes’ : Queen Elizabeth, my dad, my hubby, my mom, Charles Spurgeon, CS Lewis, Corrie ten Boom, Yahweh (God), Joni Erickson Tada, Terry Fox, Fred Rogers, Nellie McClung, Harriet Tubman, Malal Yousafzai, Francine Rivers, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Louis Armstrong, Stan Lee, Jean Vanier, Christina Rossetti … in no specific order, other than the prominence of the images of my parents and hubby.

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