These intense disagreements
How very good and pleasant it is
When kindred live together in unity! Psalm 133:1
Read Galatians 4:12—20
I am sure there are fellow Christians for whom I feel a more than ordinary frustration or protectiveness or disappointment or — could I say it? — zeal. When I reflect how much Christ has done to have us, to make us his own, when I recognise the sheer beauty, in fact the centrality of reconciliation, of finding each other as infinitely precious, then little things can blow up big. Disagreements threaten. It’s hard to treat it lightly when we fall out with each other. When we, for example, don’t see eye to eye on how Christ is at work among us. Or how it is that he has saved us. Or what it is that we are to offer others. We are so precious to each other that we easily hurt each other. Because we matter, and we know we do. I certainly know fellow Christians with whom I disagree. So I know people I can easily hurt. I can see that I must pray first of all that they should know how much they matter to me.
Dear Lord, I thank you that you have brought me to yourself and put such precious value on me. I thank you, and I now declare before you, that my brothers and sisters in the faith are equally precious to you. I pray for the grace, the space, the time, the generosity of spirit, the courage, the forgiving heart, the open ear, the words I need — good words, assuring, valuing words — to be able to connect with those with whom I disagree. Among them may I offer Christ, and in them meet Christ. And so know him even better.