I was flying back from Kansas City last November and my middle seat companion was a tall, athletic-looking man studying a sports agent’s manual. We began talking and he told me his name was Barry Gardner and that he’d played for the NFL for several seasons before suffering a career-ending injury. After that, he’d started his own company of sports agents which had become quite successful. We continued our conversation and he asked me about my line of work. I replied that I was a Unity minister and he replied, “Oh, Unity! That means you bring people together.”
His words have stuck with me. The deeper truth is that they are not only about a church or a denomination, they are a call to action to do what we can to heal our world by bringing people together.
God is but a name we use to describe the Oneness and Loving Intelligence that is the nature of this vast universe. We are essentially and deeply one with one other. It’s not apparent to our physical eyes. It requires our spiritual eyes to reveal this to us and to know that our individual well-being is not separate from our brother’s. When we see this, we begin to play our part in God’s plan of good by bringing people together with healing, with things that they need like food, medical care and housing, with love and hope.
God Needs You.
To the very old question, “Why doesn’t God do anything about all of this suffering?” The answer is that God has created us to be his hands, hearts, voices, his instruments. God needs you. God lives in and through you. God created you as a wonderful part of the divine design. God acts through each one of us who will open ourselves to God and let God be God in us. God has plenty of ideas and lots of ways to help us help others if we are willing to do our part.
Have you ever enjoyed seeing an elaborate domino building design? There are designs that have taken many people weeks to build and which have used thousands and thousands of dominos. Yet, when they are brought together, it only takes one for all of them to be affected, to set off a chain reaction.
You are a domino in God’s divine design for this world. You may be the only one to set off a chain reaction in your church or neighborhood by doing your part to bring people together with what will heal them, ease their suffering, and rebuild their lives.
As I write this, the refugee crisis has reached epic proportions. This is only one of the many crises on our planet. If you’ve never considered how important you are to God, this is your assurance. God needs you! You are an essential part of God’s plan of good and God is counting on you to play your part.
When You Pray, Move Your Feet.
It’s not an option for us to turn away from the suffering on our planet, nor is it enough to say a prayer without also acting on it. As the Quaker saying goes, “When you pray, move your feet.” Let us move our feet and commit ourselves to playing our part in God’s divine design by using our resources to bring people together with good.
Here are three ways I invite you to join me in doing your part:
- Begin by bringing people together in your own family. Create peace in your home. We can do this by building bridges of understanding with one another. When we try to understand, we make room for peace.
- Pray for the world each day. Send out your love and your peace. Open yourself to ideas that God may have for you and then act on them.
- All of us born in the USA have won the birth lottery. The 12 percent of the world’s population that lives here and in Western Europe accounts for 60 percent of private consumption spending, while the one-third living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent. Each of us can afford to set aside a portion of our income to bring people together with what will make their lives better. If you have not already done so, make a monthly donation to Doctors Without Borders or to Unicef. Each of these are verified 4 star charities.
“I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me.” -Matthew 25: 35-36 (MSG)