In early 2018, I started my blog Coeurageous because of all the fear and anxiety I was seeing in my patients. I wanted to offer them hope and encouragement. With the advent of 2020 and the pandemic, this fear has heightened. But, it has also morphed into a more dangerous demon-anger. I see only one solution for this emotional beast and that is seeking unity in love.
Nearly two thousand years ago, Jesus called his disciples to unity of heart and mind. In turn, they carried this ideal into the early church. However, it wasn’t easy to follow. The first believers of ‘The Way’ were a band of people just as diverse as we are today. Jews, Greeks, slaves, free, men and women, all pulled together in unity as the Body of Christ to the world. Jesus calls us to do the same today.
But instead of unity in love, there is back biting, name calling, and divisiveness everywhere. We can’t even have a civil conversation with a person outside our self-designated group. We divide ourselves into tribes or factions who envision everyone else as enemies. Lord help us! We’re not enemies but children of God with different opinions and lifestyles though still worthy of love. How do we move from this high level of anger in society toward any semblance of unity?
For some time now, I’ve prayed for a spiritual awakening in our land. I’m a firm believer that through the power of the Holy Spirit, love and hope could return to our hearts and minds. But in His gentle way, the Lord showed me I’m praying for the wrong thing. Not really the wrong thing but directed the wrong way. I typically direct my prayers for spiritual awakening outward. Last night, He whispered to me during the early morning hours, ‘You need to pray for yourself.’
His words are convicting and true. They cut to the heart like a scalpel in the hands of a skilled surgeon. The Lord never intends his incisions to harm but to heal. He cuts out the dead tissue and pours Himself into the wound to cleanse away all my pain, fears, and anger. Any spiritual awakening moving us toward unity, must first begin with me.
Lord, fill me with your Spirit. Pour yourself into me until I’m overflowing with your love. Awaken my soul to your wonders in this life and instill in me a joyful anticipation for a heavenly future . Let your Spirit tumble out of me, as well as every believer, and flow to all those around us. May we catch your Spirit like a virus and spread it throughout the earth. Even though diverse, we’ll become one by seeking unity in love. Amen!
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind. Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as we are.
the words of Jesus in John 17: 21-23 The Message Bible
