Building on the Unity Foundation
We recently sold our home just outside of Austin, Texas. We sold our home at an amazing time in the housing market so it was a very good deal for us, however it almost did not happen! We put our home on the market on a Friday and accepted an offer on Sunday evening. The potential buyers were moving from California and had not even seen the house in person but were sold on our home being their next home.
These buyers were first time home buyers, clearly nervous about moving half way across the country to a house they had not physically laid eyes on. The required home inspection came back with a recommendation to examine the foundation of the house. The inspector indicated that there were likely no damages to the foundation, however due to "settling cracks" it would be wise to have it more thoroughly examined. Our potential home buyers nearly backed out of the deal! We had a professional foundation inspection done several months prior to listing our home that showed there was no foundational issues with our house and we eventually were able to sell that house. Obviously if the foundation were weak, unstable or damaged then the entire deal would have been off, however the buyers were not just buying a foundation. If the foundation were strong but the house was too small, too ugly or too outdated they also would not have bought our home.
Prayer, humility and understanding are the foundations of authentic unity. Prayer, humility and understanding are the foundations, that must be strong and stable, but they are not enough to build the entire house of authentic unity. Prayer, humility and understanding are essential foundational pieces to authentic unity but they fail to produce the entire building.
The next piece needed for this building is sacrifice. We talked about this a little bit in the humility blog, however it deserves more attention here. "Emptying ourselves" is an integral piece of the outline of humility that we read about in Philippians chapter 2, but what does this look like? What does it mean to empty yourself or sacrifice for the benefit of authentic unity?
Sacrifice begins with laying down your own preferences, desires and comforts. We all have various preferences, desires and comforts and this could pull us in a million different directions, but when it comes to authentic unity we can be intentional about our sacrifice. I have a friend who loves coffee! I mean he loves it. He not only drinks it everyday, but he is a walking encyclopedia (wait that reference may be outdated...he is a walking wikipedia page? Google search?...you get the point🙂 ) about all things coffee. He knows about the process of coffee, where his favorite coffee beans come from, and all sorts of fascinating facts that sail directly over my head!
I don't like coffee. I don't care for, nor care about coffee. I don't know the difference between a latte, a cappuccino or an espresso. I frankly have no interest in anything coffee. This creates a barrier between my friend and I. When he gets fired up talking about coffee, I find myself in a dilemma. I can cut the conversation off because I don't understand and I don't care or I can listen and try to learn. I do my best to try to listen and learn, not because I want to know more about coffee, but because I value our friendship.
If we are not willing to sacrifice our preferences, desires and comforts we will inevitably shut down every conversation, every opportunity and every circumstance that pushes us into what we don't know, want to know or agree with. If we never have those conversations, take those opportunities and lean into those circumstances we will never experience authentic unity. We will find ourself surrounded by people who are just like us and we will ensure our circumstances rarely, if ever, take us away from our comfort zone. We will never be around people who enjoy coffee and we will never go into a coffee shop!
If you are never around people who like coffee and you never go into a coffee shop, you will likely never develop a love for coffee. You will likely never develop an appreciation for coffee. You will likely never even develop a tolerance for coffee. In the same way, if you never sacrifice your own comfort to be around people different than you, and you never put yourself in situations where you are the minority, you will never develop authentic unity. You will likely never love authentic unity, may never appreciate it, nor even tolerate it.
However, if you will lay down your preferences, desires and comforts you will find a power, beauty and fulfillment of life that you could have never dreamed of. If you will sacrifice being right, going where you want to go and shutting down differing perspectives you will grow in understanding, appreciation and love. If you will intentionally sacrifice you will begin to build a beautiful house on top of a strong foundation!
Jesus said it this way in John chapter 15, verse 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” It is time for us to lay down our preferences, desires and comforts in order to develop authentic unity. Make the decision today to be willing to sacrifice in order to love in the greatest way!