Baseball and Christian Unity

            One of my main loves in life is baseball, specifically the Houston Astros. One of our star sluggers for over 10 years was Lance Berkman who played his entire career with Houston until he had a bad season last year and was traded away. So, this season, after Houston snubbed him again, he signed with their archrival: the St. Louis Cardinals. He has something to prove this year and has had one of the best season of his career—so far—being among the top 3 players in all offensive categories. This past week, he made his first return to Houston and had an incredible few games. As I was watching the video from his best game where he hit two homeruns, I realized something: the crowd was screaming for him! Now, baseball fans are usually pretty classy folks and will often applaud an opposing team for making a good play. But this was different. They were standing and cheering and screaming as if he were still an Astro, but he was the “enemy”! As I thought about this, it occurred to me: his entire career spent as an Astro made up for the fact that he was now wearing the opposing uniform—in their minds, it did not matter what uniform he was wearing, he was still an Astro!

            I could not help but immediately contrast this with the church. So often we approach issues in the church as trying to “win”. Who will serve on the church committee, was the preacher really correct today, and what color should the new carpet be? I have seen people leave churches because the pastor accidentally said something that offended them, or they didn’t get their way with something. We are all Christians and should have unity together like the world has never seen! Ephesians 2:11-21 is all about this! The church is to overcome every difference in the world, and serve as one for the advancement of the Gospel. Last night, twenty thousand fans cheered and screamed as Berkman defeated their team, with absolutely no prompting or leadership from anyone, but we often cannot get two hundred members of a church to overcome their desire to win in order to support Christ. I would encourage you to pray and think about how you can participate in the unity of Christ and overcome your differences with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Unity on Greenville

This Sunday, I went to Unity on Greenville—a Unitarian “church”. Unlike all the other denominations, which all had a “churchy” feel to them, there was no such thing at Unity, even though it was held in a church building.

           

            The church service consisted of lots of recitations and readings from things that were not Scripture. They had positive affirmations, such as, “I am strong, powerful, and confident.” The lesson was about becoming more spiritual through showing love. And, the “pastor” commented that it was wrong to worship Jesus, since the “divine spark is within all of us.” Before prayer, the leader started the first couple steps of hypnosis, and actually mentioned that they needed to alter their state of consciousness, so they dimmed the lights, and started a few breathing exercises before they started praying.

            The service was full of interesting phrases that orthodox Christians would find discomfort with. For instance, during their greeting they said the Hindu word, namaste (the god in me blesses and honors the god in you), which they used to mean, “The Christ in me blesses and honors the Christ in you.” The phrase, “The Christ in you,” was used throughout—in fact, the bulletin says, “Unity sees the good in all people and blesses the Christ—the Spirit of God—in everyone.” There was a recitation that stated, “There is only on Presence and one Power active as the universe and as my life, God the Good.” The prayers were offered to Mother-Father god (lack of capitalization mine).

           

            The atmosphere was very New-Age feeling. Very inclusive. There were multiple gay couples in the sanctuary; some were discreet, some were more, shall we say, flamboyant? One person looked like she was an old hippie which fit with the general New Age/hippie feel.

            The visit was very informative, but Unity is definitely not the place for me. In fact, I don’t think I would even give them the right to be called a church.

Gratefulness and the Lack Thereof

I have been living without air-conditioning. In Texas. With heat in the 90's. Falling asleep sweating and waking up sweating, for almost a month now. But today my apartment finally fixed our air conditioner and got it blowing, which has proven to feel incredible! Nothing builds gratefulness like going without.

However, I got a true picture from my own example on how ungrateful people are, in general. When the air conditioning flipped on, I did not even realize it. I did not even realize that I had stopped sweating. When my roommate came home, he commented on how good it felt, and I went outside to find the notice posted on the bulletin board. Once I came back in, THEN I noticed the difference.

Similarly, how many people go through their lives complaining about how bad things are and never notice how God is slowly working in their life to improve things? Why do we never see the positives in our life that others see? When was the last time we thanked God for what we do have?

Take some time to consider what God has done for you. Be thankful.