The Treasure of Unity

Unity: being united or combined into one, as of the parts of a whole; unification.

Sometimes I forget just how rare unity can be. We don't see it very much in the world around us. Everyone is out for themselves, looking out for "#1" before looking out for the good of the whole.  Heck, we even see it in little ways...don't we all customize the heck out of our iPhone cases, computer covers, twitter pages, and so on and so forth. Always trying to be different, always trying to express our individuality.

I have the privilege of going to a church where I see unity. Unity on teams, between teams, in lifegroups, on the staff, among families and even broader - across churches.  Some days I am reminded of how uniquely rare it is. I'm in a little spurt where I am feeling the rarity of unity...hence the blog about it!

I'm really thankful that I know and have seen real unity. The only down side is it makes disunity all that much more glaring. It feels hard and gross and mostly it just feels stupid. Seriously, STUPID. When there is disunity, no one gains anything. Both sides hurt, both sides suffer the consequences, and it seems like everyone loses. Everyone's life becomes more difficult.

Jesus prayed for us in John 17:23b, "May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me."

Unity is what we were made to live in. Especially as the Church. Perfect unity will be in heaven - can you imagine? We will be one with Jesus, one with God, one with the Holy Spirit, and in perfect peace with everyone in heaven!!

If you haven't gotten to see a form a unity where you are, I want to paint you a picture of it that hopefully you will be able to relate to:

Imagine being at a concert. Most of us have been to one of those, right? But not just any concert, a really good concert, where everyone is psyched to be there and everyone is such a big fan of the band that they all know the words. And when the lead singer goes to sing the chorus of their most famous song, he takes the microphone and points it to the crowd, and what happens? The crowd in one huge voice  finishes the chorus together. If you have never been a part of something like that where the crowd is really huge, well then I am sorry, because frankly it is really really fun. 

I like to imagine that we'll have lots of times like that in heaven - except it will be WAY cooler and WAY more fun because we will be worshiping in PERFECT unity the ONLY one who deserves to be worshiped like that.  

Revelation 7:9-10 - After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”

I hope this spurs you on to either more greatly appreciate the unity you have in your life or go make some unity happen in your life. Unity only happens when you aim for it, and its worth working for.