In One Accord...and I'm Not Talking About the Car Either

In the past several months, we have been experiencing something wonderful in my local church body. People truly living in one accord, and working together for the common good. I for one have been more excited about being at church in the past several months than I have been in years. It really feels good too, that being a part of something bigger.

Which brings me to my thought this morning, being a part of something much larger than ourselves individually. Last night, I was waiting up for some of my daughter's laundry to finish and decided that in order to help me stay awake I needed to watch something on the television. Since I have just started to re-read The Hobbit, I decided that the animated version of this story would be a good one to view, and to help me stay awake. (Which sleep did find me anyway...it seems to do that more and more these days when I'm in my recliner.)

As Gandalf recounts the story for Bilbo Baggins about the Dwarves who lived in the Lonely Mountain and how they were the finest craftsmen around, the images on the screen were that

of a whole community of Dwarves working together to create these

wonderfully handcrafted items which they sold to men and elves. When I saw all of these people working together, I actually had the thought, "They are working for the common good of all their people. They are not working for themselves."

Now leave it to me to see something of how the Body of Christ should be doing things from an animated movie made way back in the early 1970's. But as I watched those Dwarves working together, under their King's direction for the good of the whole community I was struck with the power of working for something bigger than yourself.

We are admonished in the Scriptures to not forsake the assembling together of ourselves, (Hebrews 10:24-25) and about how we are many members but make up one body (Romans 12:3-5). These things were not put in the Bible just to be filler. No they are there for our admonition, to build us up and help us to be able to walk in our daily walk with Christ better.

When we serve something larger than ourselves, and pour our lives into it, we are more fulfilled. It's just the way that we are wired. I know from my own experiences that when I'm doing something that affects the bigger scheme of things, that I in turn feel more complete. And I think, especially in America, the tendency is to be more self-serving rather than more about serving a community, so this doesn't really come naturally to us. It is something that has to be cultivated in our lives.

There is power in unity however, and I believe that as my church grows in this we will see more and more of the increasing of the Kingdom of God in our lives personally. It's in serving the greater good, that we all become greater people, and that works out good for everyone. And if you are not experiencing that in your life or church, don't bemoan the fact that you don't have this, be the catalysis for change, ask God where He wants you to start and then get after it.

Get 'em up folks, let's go out and whip something for the Kingdom today.