Unifiers vs Dividers
Reflecting on 2016, almost surprisingly, I added several guys to my close friend circle. In fact, the most in many years. As you know, this isn’t an easy or simple dynamic anymore. Yet, it still happens best when its organic and natural—you just start to realize you have made a good friend and that it’s a two-way street. Happens first, then you realize it.
One of those new friendships is the kind that “on paper,” as they say, makes no sense. I’m an American-born southern boy, while he’s an Eastern Indian that is a brand new US citizen.
Here are our major differences:
- Nationality
- Skin color
- Language/accent/context
- Cultural
- Economic
- Intelligence (he’s way smarter)
- Diet
- As a serial entrepreneurial businessman, he travels the world while I work from my home office.
- He deals with countless people face-to-face while my influence now is mostly virtual or digital as a writer.
Here are our common denominators:
- God
- Jesus
- Holy Spirit
- Kingdom of God
- Word of God
- Heaven
Our foundation reflected in the common list creates:
- Trust
- Transparency
- Authenticity
- Accountability
- Cut-to-the-chase communication
Question: How many guys do we have on our friend list because they are “like us” and “safe”?
This dynamic is also exactly how we get churches that are all the same color, cultural and economic range, etc.
I have learned a great deal in the past year from this friendship that God most definitely sent me because to dig in and be a friend, I had to overcome some personal barriers and hurdles, just as he did, that can so easily cause me to just not even try. Particularly when I focus on the differences and not the common link.
Here’s the take-away: What if 2017 brought you a new friend that you might never have chosen, but God might know you need? When we learn to see through the eyes of the Spirit, it’s amazing how we realize there really is only one dividing line in mankind, as we see in Jesus’ question to his disciples: “But what about you? Who do you say I am?”
All of you are part of the same body. There is only one Spirit of God, just as you were given one hope when you were chosen to be God’s people. We have only one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. There is one God who is the Father of all people. Not only is God above all others, but he works by using all of us, and he lives in all of us. —Ephesians 4:4-6 CEV