“One person could be overpowered. But two people can stand up for themselves. And a rope made out of three cords isn’t easily broken.”

Ecclesiastes 4:12

I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea of unity and community. As people, we are intrinsically tied to others. We have a craving for human interaction and seek it out in different avenues. Even for introverts like myself, it’s great to have alone time, but having coffee with a friend is so life giving. We need each other, we crave being connected to others around us, but something is wrong. We begin to fight two struggles, we lack community and unity. We push people away because we’re afraid of them hurting us or us hurting them. We live in a world where people are divided based on perpetrated stereotypes of race. We believe we are better than others or think others are better than us. We are in a fight. We are in a fight for our connection to others, and we fight it because we have an enemy that doesn’t want us to live in freedom.

From the beginning of creation, God saw that man wasn’t good alone, so he made a woman. They were better together. This isn’t a post about love and marriage, this is a post about the power that comes when we come together. When we live in community and unity, we share in our struggles and hurts and grow together. The bible describes Satan as a roaring lion, and that’s a perfect description. Lions hunt the back of the pack, the straggler who is alone, and he devours them. You can be alone, sure, but you won’t last long. When life hits, it tends to hit hard and fast. We can’t do this thing alone. We need to be united in community, because we are better together.

Fight for unity.

Not too long ago, my Church, Daystar, had an event designed to cultivate unity and continue the conversation into racial reconciliation. We live in a world where we claim to be moving forward, yet we are still fighting the battle to see each other as equals. The truth is, each one of us has been made in the image of God. We are his children and need to love one another. I wrote about that a couple of weeks ago, and it’s still true. One of the observations I made during the event was how over time, people in power begin to treat others as a lesser human being, because when you treat someone as having less importance, you don’t see them as a child of God anymore, and that is wrong. We need to look at everyone as being made in the image of God. People who need a relationship with a savior that died for them and rose again to redeem them. We need to be united, to stop looking down on others, but instead loving each and every person we meet. These people are family, and if they aren’t family yet, it’s our job to bring them into the family. I love an explosion of color, heaven is going to be the best color explosion ever. This means we need to fight for unity around us, reach out, stand up, and love your family. Besides, we are better together.

Find your community.

I love the TV show Community because it demonstrates the biblical power of community. The show follows a group of misfits in community college that start a study group. Simple concept, and what we see is a group of all different people together and do life together. We need people to do life with. We need people we can lean on when we struggle, people to love us when we hate ourselves, people to confide our struggles in, people that will pick us up and fight next to us. I love this show because it shows us the power of the verse I had above. Alone, we can be overpowered, but together, we become unstoppable. We become a force to be reckoned with. We stand in the face of the devil and say, “not today.” Find your community. Find a beautiful group of people you can go through life with and stand tall with. We need to fight for community, because we are better together.

This has been something so heavy on my heart. I don’t like bullies. I feel like we live in a world controlled by bullies. Preying on those below them. That’s not right. That’s straight from hell, I don’t wanna play that game. We need to be true followers of Christ. We need to stand together and fight for unity and community. We cannot make it alone. We need to stop pushing others away, and instead, draw others close to us and loving them fiercely. As believers we are called to make disciples of all nations, that means all people, so we are called to reach all people. No matter what they look like or how they may act. We were created in the image of God. Every. Single. Person. All need to hear the truth and love of the gospel. Fight for unity and find community. We need each other, God wants all of us to have a relationship with him, so we need to share this beauty with everyone. That’s the only way. I choose to tell as many people as I can about what God has done in me, so that they have a chance to ask Christ into their heart. Don’t let the enemy take another from the herd, fight for unity and find community.

God created us to be better together.

-Joshua Thomas