Thursday in The Week of The 3rd Sunday After Pentecost (06/25/09)

How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.

--Psalm 133:1

Life is good and life is pleasant for any number of reasons. The psalmist declares that when family (personal and/or church) lives together in unity, good and pleasant things ensue.


This is all very nice. But the question is: do we really prefer goodness and pleasant-ness? Our actions often suggest otherwise. Following the dictates of the dominant culture, we want to be our "own man" or our "own woman." Rugged individualism is pushed in some societal quarters. Unity with kindred may be risky. You might invest too much into it emotionally, and then when things go bad you're left hurting. You wrap yourself in a social cocoon, and you go through the days specifics -- and even pleasantries -- with a polite aloofness. We all can have a little Greta Garbo in us: "I vant to be alone." We seek to be a unity unto ourselves. The psalmist didn't see it that way. As risky as it may be, unity insists on a plurality of people.


I saw a billboard on an Indiana highway years ago. It read: "I Love God! (It's His people I can't stand.)" How can we "stand" God's people -- and especially the ones that we'd prefer not to hang out with? One initial suggestion is here offered: first, look at them as folks, like you, that Christ was willing to die for.


PD