Happiness in unity?

What is unity? Well to be directly exact here is the definition: The state of being one. I have been thinking on this subject because I guess I am given a chance to actually prepare something on unity. However it has captured my attention further than just a 10 minute lesson I am to give. I mean, I am still learning what this means also.

You see I have contemplated unity, and honestly I have come to the conclusion that unity with one another doesn't mean you must be happy with one another. Verse 2 of Ephesians 4 reads like this; "with all LOWLINESS and GENTLENESS, with LONGSUFFERING, BEARING with one another in LOVE, ENDEAVORING to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." I spilled over into verse 3 but I thought that was important. People think a lot of the time that to be unified, to be "one" with each other does not mean you can't have differences, lowliness; humbling yourself so that you can be in unity with others. Gentleness; handling situations in a calm manner, and with compassion. With longsuffering; suffering with one another, even when suffering is unbearable. Bearing with one another; just bearing each other, not being in complete agreeance all the time, bearing each other in any situation. Love; love those who you are unified with, you may not like them sometimes but in companionship love is the strongest aspect of all. Endeavoring; striving to keep the unity, not taking the easy way out and saying forget it, but willing to go through the strife of unity because you love one another.

Unity takes hard work. We are unified with God through Christ. Talk about hard work, Jesus had to be beaten, he had to let blasphemous words roll off his back, he had to keep QUIET because he knew death on a cross must happen. He did this so we may understand the sufferings that may come with unity, that we can see the love and longsufferings we must endure to be unified. That we must bear one another just as Jesus bit his tongue as many of his people scrutinized Him. These are the qualities of unity that many do not want to face, they wish to be unified by happiness and love that is lighthearted, while all that sounds great, the reality is real unity takes more than this. It takes the understanding of why Christ died because without that we would never...ever understand what true unity is. It's not rainbows and flowers, however unity reaps goodness and truth, true brotherhood and sisterhood, if only we can see that unity takes time and patience, Christ showed us how it's done, and he still does.

All to God