Realignment

My local Facebook feed has been alight with Conference talk for a few weeks now. First the news that Syracuse and Pittsburgh were moving to the ACC (damn you ACC, for continuing to raid our conference!). Then there was some talk of WVU moving to the SEC, but we were passed over with talk about our low academic standards. Then this week it looked like it was kind of a done deal for WVU to move into the Big 12. However Senator McConnell made a call and put the breaks on that deal, which caused WV senators Manchin and Rockefeller to also stick their noses into it. And of course there is all kinds of huge money at stake, regardless of how it all shakes out.

Needless to say, all of this has been pretty hard on the WVU fans. Are we supposed to be loyal to the Big East? Do we throw our hopes into a conference where the closest school is Iowa? Do we put a hit out on at the folks running the ACC? (The answer to that? Is definitely yes.) So much rejection swirling around, it's hard not to take it personally.

We're just a few days away from Reformation. Growing up Lutheran, this was always one of the biggest days of the year, right up there with Christmas and Easter. The day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors of the Wittenberg Castle Church, protesting the use of indulgences and one of the catalysts for the Protestant movement.

Today, we have over 38,000 denominations of Christianity. Thirty-eight-thousand.

That is some serious shake-up going on.

Disagreements over theology, tradition, money, politics all cause us to constantly fracture and divide. We shift, we realign.

Before his death, Jesus prayed the following for his followers:

I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me. I have honored my followers in the same way that you honored me, in order that they may be one with each other, just as we are one. I am one with them, and you are one with me, so that they may become completely one. Then this world's people will know that you sent me. They will know that you love my followers as much as you love me. (John 17:21-23, CEV)

We don't show God's love through our perfect theology, through our spectacular church services, or through our support of the right political candidate. Jesus said that the way we display it is through our unity in him. That's a realignment I can get behind.

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What football conference is your favorite team in? What are some practical steps we can take to realign under Christ with our Christian neighbors with whom we don't necessarily agree?

Stuff I've Been Reading

Another Sunday, another chance to link up to some of my favorite posts from the week. This week I'm posting some of my favorites from the Rally to Restore Unity. Enjoy!

• There were a number of amazing posts for the Rally to Restore Unity synchroblog, but my favorite was this one by Eric Pazdziora. "Maybe we just couldn't see it because we were looking at the things we want to argue about instead of the things we want to sing about."
• Ed Cyzewski wrote a letter to himself 15 years ago. I thought that was a really creative way to highlight unity not just within the whole body, but within ourselves as well.
• Kathy Escobar wrote about why we have a hard time following the Golden Rule.
• Elizabeth Esther wrote that our Catholic brothers and sisters love Jesus. I know!
• Kristin Tennant wrote a lovely post about her faith journey and some of the "potty breaks" along the way.
• Mason Slater went a different way with the March to Keep Disunity Alive. I think his signs were my favorites of the week.
• And the one non-rally post that I simply can't ignore: Matt Cannon wrote a spectacular piece of poetry on Friday. It would be criminal not to include it.

I encourage you to stop by Rachel's blog and click through the many, many posts that went up. Lots of really great stuff there. I haven't even come close to reading everything, but what I've read has been pretty fantastic.

What have you read/written/watched/listened to this week that moved you? Leave a link in the comments!

Big Differences, Bigger God

There are a few people that I look for every Sunday between services. My dear friends Misty and Rich. My bandmates Eric and Rick and their lovely wives. Folks that I play with on the worship team and who help out with my kids. My new friend Chris who is one of the few people in real life that I can talk with about blogging at length (and with far fewer eye rolls afterward than I'm sure some of my friends give).

And, of course, Kit.

Alise and Kit between services on Easter

I met Kit at a David Crowder concert at our church. We talked for a little bit that night and then became Facebook friends the next day.

And I found out through Facebook, the way you often do these days, that we are very, very different. Like, polar opposite kind of different. Like, should I just go ahead and unfriend her now and save the trouble later kind of different.

You would be hard pressed to find a place where we agree. On nearly every subject, we take opposing sides. A few weeks ago we were sitting together in church and the speaker mentioned that the weather was supposed to warm up that week. I let out a groan. Kit looked at me and just started laughing because we don't even agree about what kind of weather we like.

And yet, she is one of the people that I seek out each week. Not just because she makes me feel tall (though she's one of the few people who can do that), but because the love that we share in Christ is much deeper than the areas where we disagree. So she can overlook that I'm an NPR-listening, Democrat-voting, gay-affirming liberal and I can get over her being a Beck-watching, GOP-voting, gun-toting conservative. Even though we're the kind of person that makes the other shake their head on a good day and want to throw a computer through the window on a bad day, the love we feel for one another is genuine. Because the love we feel for Jesus is genuine.

Unity isn't about being the same. Unity is about pushing through even big differences and finding that Jesus is way bigger.

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This is a part of the Rally to Restore Unity synchroblog hosted by Rachel Held Evans. Be sure to check out her blog each day for tons of awesome posts about unity!