unity

Last words are important. The very last words of someone’s life seem to carry extra importance. This is one of the reasons John is one of my favorite books of the Bible; he gives nearly 10 chapters in his 21-chapter book to tell the story of the last week of Jesus’ life. Chapters 14-16 basically outline the last main conversation He had with His disciples. Chapter 17 is one of my personal favorite chapters as Jesus, still in the presence of His disciples, shifts His focus onto His Father in prayer. He prays about himself, thanking God for the work He has done through Him in His time on earth. He prays for His disciples there present with them. He wraps up by praying for “those who would come to know Jesus because of the word of the disciples there”… in essence, he prays for US!

These last words not only are significant, there seems to be a theme that comes out in them. Here are a few select verses from Jesus’ prayer:

“… that they may all be one, just as you, Father are in me, and I in you, that they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. … that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you send me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:21-23)

In just 3 verses we see time after time after time again where Jesus desires them to “be one” or describes His own “oneness” with the Father. In a word, he’s praying for:

UNITY.

What I find most interesting about this is that He says that unity is the way in which people will know about Jesus’ love. And it makes sense when you think about it logically. Yet, sadly, in practice, unity is hard for us humans. Satan gets us to focus on the differences, how we might do something better, or simply how “the other person/group of people is wrong!” I have literally had young people tell me that one of the reasons they don’t want to be Christian is because, “if the Christians can’t even get along with each other, why would I want to be part of that?” It all happens so quick… an under-the-breath comment, one word of gossip, one email with misinterpreted tone-of-voice … and division is present.

Today, I give up division and disunity.

Jesus, rather than looking so much at each other, help us your children, keep our eyes on You alone. Unite our focus on the things that matter most and leave the rest up to You. Give us courage to resolve conflict, honesty and humility to confront each other when necessary, and above all, Your sacrificial generous love for each other. Through our love for each other, may those who don’t know You, witness Your unifying love!

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(My afternoon was just so cool that it warrants pausing my 31 Days of Imperfection series.)

So this afternoon I went prom dress shopping with 11 ladies. Yes, it was as insane as it might sound. But the coolest part about it all was that these ladies weren’t shopping for their own dresses.

Last week, I was talking with a few of the high school girls at First Trinity about a collection taking place in the area of prom dresses for girls who can’t afford to buy one on their own. They wanted to do something. While a couple of them had a dress to donate from last year, many of them have never been to prom and therefore had nothing to donate. This was where Project Prom Dress was born. The youth began talking with siblings and other young women they knew to gather slightly used dresses. Then, today, we all wore formals to church to advertize a little more. After church we pooled our money and hit the stores to buy some new ones to donate as well. They collected $161 dollars and by hunting the sales, they were able to purchase FIVE dresses.

In between having to explain to people why a group of 12 girls in prom dresses were walking around the mall shopping for prom dresses, I found myself thinking about a passage we looked at a couple weeks ago in Sunday School:

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. … And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Colossians 3:12, 14)

When these young women got dressed this morning, they didn’t just put on a fancy outfit, the clothed themselves with these attributes.

They gave up a Sunday afternoon and some of their own hard-earned money to make a difference in other girls’ lives. Compassion. Kindness. Humility. They didn’t just grab the first dress they could find. They spent a couple hours looking at all the stores… searching for the best deals to make their money have the most impact… they thought about what they’d want in a prom dress but only so they could make someone ELSE’s day. Gentleness. Patience. They paid attention to every little detail: the color, the length, the size, the shape to find the PERFECT dress. Love. And as we traipsed around the mall all day, their sense of accomplishment and joy grew as they worked together, talking out decisions, and landing on five beautiful dresses that will bring joy to five beautiful women they may never meet. Unity.

As I personally put on a formal this morning and thought of these other women doing the same, I was reminded of this passage from Matthew 25:

[Jesus said,] ‘I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

You might even say… we bought Jesus a prom dress today. 🙂

Tag: unity

Giving Up Division and Disunity

We Bought Jesus a Prom Dress Today! :)