ONE

Bono has a song about it. Marriages fight for it. Churches are confused by it. And Jesus prayed that we would have it. According to Bono, it will leave us if we don’t care about it and the sad reality is that there are a lot of marriages that stopped caring about it a long time ago, and consequently it has left them. A shift from sharing a heart, to sharing a house – from sharing a house to dividing who gets what in the house once the divorce is settled. Then there is the church who might claim to care about it, but at best is utterly confused by it. Some estimate that there are over 30,000 different denominations world-wide with even more independent churches popping up everywhere. What is it? Oneness. Unity.

And then there is Jesus. He prayed that if anyone would be a follower of His, that we would model the type of relationship He had with His Heavenly Father – a relationship that typifies unity and oneness (John 17). Pride, self-centeredness, and independent attitudes are obvious oneness/unity killers, but I wonder if there is something beyond what appears to be obvious. The question that serves as yet another ‘splinter in my mind’ is this question – ‘do I really want to be one and have unity with others?’ If we’re honest – if I’m honest, I’m not sure that’s always the desire of my heart. How about you?

I readily confess that the desires of my heart can often be ‘jacked up’, but I know there is a greater desire within me that says I want to be an answer to Jesus’ prayer. His prayer was an expression of what His heart longed for most – and it would seem that what Jesus longed for in would be followers is that we would be ‘one.’ I see two options before me. Fight like an MMA man to make oneness/unity a reality and be an answer to Jesus’ prayer, or ignore the prayer of God’s Son. I know the road to unity/oneness will be ladened with difficulties and potential disappointments, but a greater disappointment to me would be a refusal to be an answer to my Savior’s prayer.

LOST

Boston is not an easy city to navigate. It’s happened before, and it happened again yesterday – I got LOST! I thought if I just keep going, I would eventually see something familiar that would point me in the right direction. I kept going and going even though I had the reoccurring thought ‘stop and turn around.’ But I could not stop now because of how far I had gone. I kept thinking ‘certainly I will recognize something soon that will put me on the right path or point me in the right direction.’ Yes – I could have stopped to ask for directions, but I wanted to get ‘unlost’ on my own. After about 50 minutes of going in the wrong direction and ending up in a town that I’d never been in, I finally stopped, turned around and retraced my steps. I worked my way back to where I needed to go, but I wasted a lot of gas and time in the process.


It’s one thing to be lost in a car headed in the wrong direction, but what happens when being lost is a summary of your life. Too many people travel down the highways and byways of life never stopping to ask a very simple question – ‘is where I’m headed actually going to lead me to the place I want and need to be?’ Rather than asking that question and pausing long enough to compose an answer, far too many people are content to travel along in life hoping that eventually they will recognize something along the way that will potentially point them in the right direction. What if you never recognized anything along the way – would you just keep going? Ultimately, if you don’t know where you’re going, how would you know when you arrived?


Life is far too valuable a gift to live lost. Jesus once said – “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Admitting lostness and allowing someone other than you find you takes great humility, but there is no greater joy than getting found. Live lost, or get found – which one will you chose?