Unity (07/22/2025)

If you read many of my blogs, you might spot a trend. I’m keen on unity. I have been since middle school when I was able to discern the disunity or division within our southern community along racial lines. I didn’t understand it then. To be honest, I still don’t. But something inside me told me that unity in the LORD was going to be my mission in life.  Fast forward to 2025. As I look about me at the polarization of our nation, at the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, I recognize that unity is still a mission worth working on in this world.

 I look at the LORD – Father, Son, and Spirit – united. Our Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons without in any way separating them. We glorify the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Everyone who follows the Son does so because the Father draws Him and the Spirit moves him. Our lives come to us from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. And we are called as sisters and brothers to mirror that unity though we are diverse, believing in one LORD, belonging to one LORD, becoming the ones the LORD created us, called us and gifted us to be. Our places of origin may differ, our gifts may differ, but our purpose in life is the same.

We are all children of the same LORD. We are all sisters and brothers of the same Christ. We are all gifted, graced and guided by the same Spirit. And yet there is still division. Clearly, it is not the plan of the LORD, our God, that this is the way things are to be. And so, as I see it, it is up to us, each in our own space with our own gifts and our own voices, to work for unity among this diverse mass of humanity. But how?

I take my wonder and my puzzle to the LORD daily. I seek answers. I pray for guidance. I hope for miracles. And then I go out into the world to try to live that which I believe I am called to live. I speak to people I encounter. I figure the LORD put them in my path for a reason. I try and live the right relationship with others that the LORD lives with me and calls me to live with Him and others. I don’t always succeed. In fact, most days I fall short. Perhaps that is the reason that the Prodigal Son is my favorite parable. I rely heavily on the unfathomable mercy of my LORD.

I’m getting older every day which is code for saying I’ve been around for a long time picking up clues about this thing we call life. And I think the problem is power. Not the kind that comes through wires into our home but the kind that people fight with others to gain and to build and to maintain. And I think back to Adam and Eve in the garden. That was the first sin – seeking the power of God without God – even in spite of God. Eve took the forbidden fruit because the serpent convinced her that she would be as knowledgeable and as powerful as God if she consumed it. Power, the lack of it or the desire for it can be so enticing.

The LORD, our God, created us and gave us free wills. We choose. And we always have the option to choose poorly. Unfortunately, we do choose poorly too often. But there is the LORD’s loving mercy that we must never forget. That’s why I carry my pocket cross, so that I never forget. There is a cost for our sinfulness, and the Son of God, Jesus Christ, paid it once and for all. He ransomed us away from the power of sin and death. We have only to believe with all our heart and mind and being. It is that simple, but it is in no way easy.

As we continue on our journeys of faith, believing in our one LORD, Father, Son, and Spirit, let us allow ourselves to trust. Let our hope in the LORD’s promise and the LORD’s righteousness and loving mercy gather us into His embrace and encourage us along the way. May His love for us fill us and overflow into our world and into all our encounters this day. May we seek to allow the power of the LORD’s love to suffice and not seek power for ourselves. May we work for unity in our corner of the world.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.