“May they all be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that the world may believe that you sent me, says the Lord.” John 17:21

Such a small prayer by Jesus. None of the words in the prayer are wasted on himself. Centuries have passed since the words of the Son of God came off his lips. Centuries later, we are still praying for the same thing. Unity. It is amazing to me, and I still am having a hard time wrapping my head around this, but through all the ages of man’s progression, we still are not unified, nor have learned to respectfully agree to disagree.

Prime examples of this come up on a daily basis, just turn on your local news. The broadcasts are full of conflicting points of view that have escalated to the detriment of our humanity. It is the worst part of being mortal in this world, intolerance and ignorance. The simple prayer above is the key to saving us all from ourselves. It is so easy to get caught up in the black vs white in all the world, yet, if we just took a second to look up, rationalize our emotions, we could understand that we are all working towards the same goals, meeting our Savior.

I am not saying we should not have an opposition to someone’s way of thinking, but there is a mutual respect that should come with any disagreement. We should love and respect everyone in the world enough not to become so passionate we turn barbaric. We are all blessed by God, and we should have enough courtesy to one another to respect that. There is no issue in this world that demands harm to another. However, that does not mean to not protect yourself either…. wickedness still exists and we have to be prepared for that.

As we are moving closers to Pentecost, remember we are called to pray for and be in service to our fellow neighbors, no matter what. That includes the ones we don’t agree with even more than the ones we do.