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.