Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t want this division that I mentioned in my last post. It hurts me… I am grieved… and I know, and try to live, the reality that “united we stand, divided we fall.” Ok, maybe not fall. Divided, we are far less effective and to aggressively remain divided, we hurt the message that Jesus told us to live.

I make every effort that I can to keep dialog open, to continue to converse and connect with those who disagree with me. Not that I want to convert them to my way of thinking, but that I hope that we can work together for a common good. Jesus prayed that we will be one as we listen and embody the presence of the spirit of God in us. Unfortunately, there will always be a lack of unity when people decide to stop pursuing the truth that is so much bigger than we can understand.

When we stop pursuing, when we think we’ve got it and all we have to do is now follow the right rules and make sure everyone else thinks like we do, we have lost the path of growing into the divine likeness. What we have is religiosity. As soon as we stop changing and growing and feel that we must defend what we already have… we are done for. It is here that the division happens. And it is here that people get hurt.

I don’t want this division. I want to be reconciled, I want to continue the conversation. But some feel as though continuing the conversation is enough reason to end the conversation. It doesn’t make sense to me. How do we live out the kingdom of God, how do we become image bearers of Jesus, when we go around laying out those who are seeking to follow God as authentically as they know how. God is bigger than our human efforts to understand. Truth is bigger. The gospel is bigger. Let us celebrate this together.