The Language of Unity
“Leave him alone, He doesn’t understand our Language He’s not from around here.” I have heard this phrase quite often in my Life, from the playgrounds at elementary school when I was learning to speak English in a school that was predominantly English speaking, right through to the workplace in my adult years where I have seen people divided into cliques or being promoted depending based on whether they speak English, Afrikaans or Zulu. I had not thought much about it until I saw a glimpse of it at a certain Church. I heard an old white lady politely tell a black gentleman that there was another service that catered for the indigenous languages that he may enjoy that service much more than this English speaking one... What bothered me so much about this occurrence was that the white lady did not even ask the black gentleman why he had attended the English speaking service in the first place. Her presumption that the black man would better be suited to the service that spoke one of the African languages spoke volumes of how as people we have been divided by a lack of understanding and not necessarily the language phenomena itself.
Let's wind back into time back to the early ancient days to understand what division and unity do.
Genesis 11:6-9
The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9That is why it was called Babel because there the Lord of the whole world
The story of Babel in the Bible tells a story of people who were once united but because they united in doing the wrong thing, God had to break their unity of foolishness - Yes you can be united for the wrong reasons Unity is not always good if we are united for the wrong cause. So God in His infinite wisdom chose to separate the unholy unity by making the people of Babel speak different languages. What strikes me about this story is that they dispersed and moved away from each other not because they now spoke a different language, but it was because they could not understand each other and so their unity was broken.
When we choose to only understand ourselves and not to understand the story of others we perpetually stay in a place of Babel (confusion, disunity & division).
The story of Racism is a Babel story that has plagued the world with division because people choose not to want to understand the other races or cultures around them because they want to be the ones who are understood. Selfishness is at the core of this perspective.
Language is only a barrier if you choose not to learn the other person language, just as race or tribe is a barrier when we continue to allow ourselves to be oblivious of what it means or how it feels to be a person of colour or a person of a different culture or tribe. Our lack of interest in seeing or understanding that all people have been created by one creator and that we ultimately share one heavenly father spirals the disunity in Churches, communities and nations.
There is a language though that can cross over whatever barrier that divides people and that is the language of Love. It is the same language that God used when the language of sin created a barrier between us and God. God chose to understand us in our sinfulness through his love and sent his one and only son to bridge that gap in love. God chose to become like us so that he could understand us and commiserate with us but then ultimately bridge the gap that caused the division.
No matter how gaping our differences are if we choose Love we start speaking a language that will bring understanding and healing between the races and the tribes of the world. Love will help us bridge the Babel curse and restore the world to a place of understanding which is the cornerstone of communication in being united.
The Power of being united in Love
you may actually miss out of the Power of Unity in the story of Babel if you concentrate on the wrong that the people of Babel were doing. In their misguided unity they were actually about to achieve what they had set out to do. Unity is Powerful and when you come together as a Team or a family or a Church to pursue a purpose you will achieve your purpose. God clearly says of the People of Babel, Them speaking with one voice and moving as one people was going to make them Unstoppable in achieving their Vision. if you want to achieve something great, gather with people who want to achieve great things.
At View Church, our vision is world reaching as we want to see change lives changing other lives. We believe we get to impact our Nation which will in turn impact our continent and our world by working together as one. This year we are activating our united efforts by calling everyone who is part of the View Church movement to reach at least one person this year and assist invite them to the journey of Freedom in Christ. #EachOneReachOne
We are better together and unity will bring us towards being an Unstoppable People in an Unstoppable Church. Watch the message below from our lead Pastor, Leanne Greeff about how we are designed to be better together
Day 4;Experience the Power
It is not by Power nor by Might but by my Spirit says the Lord
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