“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!”
– Psalm 133:1
Hi James and Ellen,
What is unity to you? Unity to your grandpaa implicates unconditional agreeing or uncompromising unanimity or unqualified harmony between guys and gals in an established environ or recognized milieu. How often do you think that all the guys and gals who are members of your Christ-follower fellowship of guys, gals and kids are on the same page with each other – such as from the times when fellowship services should be held to who should be on the fellowship’s governing board? How often do you think that all the guys and gals who have kids in your school have the same mindset with each other – such as from what their kids should be taught in your school to how your school should be administrated? How often do you think that all the guys and gals who are living where you live in Newark, Delaware have the same life worldviews – such as from politics to social issues to religion? There will be times as your lives unfold when you will suddenly find yourself with a group of guys and gals who are unified because of something that has taken place that has driven everyone to a common focus or meeting of minds. This common focus or meeting of minds may be aimed at winning a championship – such as your city’s football team winning the Super Bowl, may be centered on bringing hope after a calamitous disaster – such as helping Haitian guys, gals and kids survive after having their homes destroyed and their lives shaken by a devastating earthquake or may be directed in enabling a pool of guys and gals in Biblical truths to be shepherds of Christ-follower flocks of guys and gals – such as what your grandmaa and grandpaa did in Bolivia – as South America Mission field team missionaries, through the non-formal rural, resident Bible education and leadership training program that your grandmaa and grandpaa implemented in January of 1982 in Concepción, Nuflo de Chávez.
How do you think that unity can be achieved? Your grandpaa has been with teams that purposely list unity as one of their absolutes in their team mission statement. Your grandpaa figuratively cringes when he hears a guy or gal wanting unity as one of his or her team goals. Your grandpaa knows from experience that when there are specific efforts made in pursuit of team unity, more divisiveness invariably will occur between the team members. Do you think that unity means the same to all guys and gals? Do you think that unity can be caught? Do you think that unity is a destroyer of the right to disagree? Can you see unity being used as leverage by a team leader to coerce his or her team to do it his or her way? Can you see unity being used by a guy or gal on a team to manipulate fellow members on his or her team to get his or her way? Can you see unity being used as a ploy by an agency to enforce compliance from their office team? Your grandpaa knows Bible verses that very clearly support pursuing unity. Your grandpaa believes that it is a must that guys and gals are given the opportunities to express differences of opinion, exchange different ideas, expound differently to an approach, etc. without the fear of violating a predetermined or unvoiced, stringent, controlled artificial unity paradigm or parameter.
Your grandmaa, grandpaa, Uncle Chris and Aunt Lynn have been for a number of years missionaries with Adventures in Missions – working in Adventures in Missions headquarters that is located on a rural site outside of Gainesville, Georgia. Your grandpaa overheard a discussion yesterday between two guys. One of the guys is the Director of Adventures in Missions. The other guy is an Adventures in Missions office missionary team member. What bothered your grandpaa about the conversation was that the Adventures in Missions Director was dictating his expectations on how some changes were to be made without giving any of the guys or gals who would be affected by the changes the opportunity to speak into his mandated changes. Because he does not like being micro managed, your grandpaa has been intentional about not micro managing guys and gals who he has been tasked to supervise. The Adventures in Missions office missionary team member is strongly hardwired to go by the books – which has him always trying to please his supervisor. This same Adventures in Missions office missionary team member uses managing in his conversations in a way to communicate a power role that this guy perceives he has over other guys and gals who he works with. What frustrates your grandpaa is that the periodic, spontaneous outbursts of unity at Adventures in Mission’s headquarters are being usurped by Adventures in Mission’s personnel operating through their personal agendas instead of valuing verbal input from their other office team members. When David realized one day that unity had enveloped him, David scribed Psalm 133. This psalm song has three verses. Verse 1 says, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” David may have written this psalm song when he was positioned in the city of Hebron to be the second king over the Israelite people group guys and gals. David shares his feelings of his anointing with Aaron being anointed with oil. Aaron had so much precious oil – oil being symbolic of God’s blessings, poured over his head that the oil continued to run down his face, through his beard and unto the collar of the robe that had been exclusively designed for him. Your grandpaa believes that a spirit of unity will be sensed when guys and gals put aside all their self-interests while focusing totally on an external felt need.
Psalm 133 (1051)