RevolWorks.com

Scripture & Notes God Before Possessions Purpose Prayer The Work Abiding Unity The Word Bonds The Holy Spirit Love The Great Commission God Before Self Faithfulness God Before Others Beyond

Unity

Scripture

Verses on Unity

Reject or Restore?

We must love Donald Trump. Having seen his former hit reality show, “The Apprentice,” we all want to shout the words, “You’re fired!” to whomever falls short of our standards.

Public affairs bear this out. Each week, public officials hear calls for their own firing or resignations. Infractions such as insensitive or offensive comments may trigger the chorus of calls. Missteps in the execution of job performance, large or small, could set them singing. Association with someone who has questionable character or has done something dubious could instigate the demands.

Secretary Generals. Senators. Cabinet Officials. Talk radio hosts. Actors on primetime television dramas. Presidents. Professors. College presidents. Military generals. District attorneys. CEOs. Teachers. Coaches. Pastors. We have called for firings of such people in increasing numbers over the last few years.

Counting the Cost

There are two costs. Count both before you choose.

If you see deep, close-knit friendships that ride out time’s storms and selfishness and wounds and fatigue and career, you will surely want one. Something so refined possesses great beauty, because it has been purified to a precious degree. But such a beautiful and exquisite thing costs much.

If you want it, know this: you will go through rough times. The people you love most will wound you most deeply.

You will be asked to give up what you want: a place you want to live, where you put your money, how you spend your time, even with whom you spend it. Not every moment, but often enough that it will frustrate you.

Alien Nation 2

This is how I work: if someone even so much as slights me, I put up a wall. It might be small, to resemble the offense, separation. Eventually some people hurt me even more, and I build the wall higher. I cannot permit them entry and risk damage.

It works like a credit card. I give people a certain line of credit. They, in turn, operate within their approved limit. As time and trust increase, their credit line grows. I give them more of me, of my time, resources and heart.

Alien Nation 1

Many have hailed Karl Marx as a genius for explaining alienation in the human condition. His philosophical and political treatises engage the topic of alienation as he looks at the worker’s life in unchecked capitalism. But Marx saw nothing new. Two millennia prior, Jesus had already identified alienation, and more accurately. His solution involved not governments, but personal relations. His interactions with Peter bear this out.

Rather than focus on alienation based on social class, Jesus took a different tack. He sought to resolve alienation between two humans, between man and himself, between man and neighbor, and between man and God.

Claimed

One scene of the movie, "Far and Away" pans a picturesque landscape of the still uncultivated western frontier. The film’s central image shows the main character adamantly staking a flag in the dirt of Oklahoma amidst a land rush. For a moment, the camera focuses on this banner.

Like a wedding band, the symbol represents an inner pledge. This mere flag declared that someone had claimed this land. Someone had decided to work it, to sweat and bleed over it, and to live or die by its success.

Risk: The Game of Personal Emancipation

He sat across from me at our bar. As usual, he was late, and I antsy. But we still spoke openly of marriage, friends, sex, God, money, work and each other. We imbibed our usual spirits, downed marvelous burgers. And then it came.

The doubt.

I couldn’t help but wonder if this relationship could continue outside the bar. Certainly we could discuss intimate matters, and outsiders would declare this a deep friendship. But something lacks.

Why Together?

John 17 is Jesus’ prayer for those who believe in him. He asks one thing of the Father for them: oneness. “That they may be one, just as we are one” (v. 22).

Scan the religious landscape. You’ll see religions, and within those, denominations and sects. Within denominations and sects, you’ll notice further individuation from others as they specify, differentiate and dress up exclusion. Dialogue between religions or denominations might appear theologically soft or insufficiently provincial. So its scarcity increases.

Why did Jesus pray for unity?

The Other Cost, Part 1

Someone said that love primarily has a contractual nature. Love means a commitment to which we bind ourselves. With love, we agree to give, receive and seek forgiveness. We commit to continually reconcile, repair and rebuild the relationship. We believe the person worth the choice to return again and again, no matter the cost.

The same nature underlies unforgiveness. We choose to sign a contract with binding terms, though no visible ceremony takes place. This contract, with its attendant vows, is subtle. But it is as great in its consequences.

Question Unity, Question You

In what do I want to invest my life? Work? Money? Achievement? People?
Do I want friends?
Are friends better than isolation?
Are two better than one? Why?
How close do I want others to me?
What have I done to be part of a group? What have I done to deserve to be out, excluded, expelled or avoided?
Can Jesus teach me anything about the above? Relationships? Why or why not? What?
What is essential for friendship to exist in my life? To last? To matter?
Am I willing to work at a friendship? Despite the inevitable pain? Despite the sometimes taxing efforts?
Why am I working so hard to protect all of my information?
Am I teachable?
How well do I know my friends?
How do I get to know them more intimately? Do I want to?

The Other Cost, Part 2

In the November 2005 issue of “National Geographic,” a headline article carries the story about the longest-living people groups in the world. The first group lives in Sardinia, Italy. The Sardinians eat pecorino cheese, drink red wine and work hard. They also live closely together for their entire lives.

Married couples live longer than singles. Pet owners live longer than animal haters. Church-goers live longer than non-church-goers, as well. So say leading independent research groups.

It might be a stretch, but deduction from the data suggests that togetherness makes for more life than isolation, at least in terms of length.

Alien Nation 3

Now for the big question. How do we get right with God? How do we fix the relationship that has always felt a little off, a little broken?

The disclaimer is this: we’re dealing in big matters, matters some would call divine. Despite our attempt to grasp everything we want to know, mystery will persist.

I’d love to offer you a program, like QuickBooks for your PC. A quaint equation like e=mc2 would also prove handy. I don’t have that. None of us receive such easy answers when trying to correct issues with God. Maybe we claim to have the formula, but it ultimately shrinks our God.

Proceed

Someone I know recently completed his first triathlon. He hadn’t trained, but he had finished. Asked what he learned, he replied, “Run toward the pain.”

An increasingly progress-oriented culture instructs its members to avoid pain. Dare we risk heresy and question the genius of avoiding all pain?

Pain plays a role in the production of value. Great achievement begins in discomfort and soon moves into the pain of sacrifice. Look at the costs of building a business, earning a degree, winning in sports, purchasing a home, or managing a social career. Each of these includes some measure of pain. Birth, the grand experience, runs full of pain for the mother.

A State of Union

We actually believe that self-sufficient independence and fulfilling relationships can mutually coexist. Might we have it wrong?

From the onset, we tend to seek equality with and independence from God. Why should we live under His authority? Adam and Eve asked this question.

The answer arrived quickly. Their first-born son killed his younger brother. We clearly have issues.

In this world, independence marks one as strong. Above all, we need to look good or at least avoid looking bad. Talk about others, but not to them. Manipulate others to benefit and protect ourselves. This begins to expose our thought processes.