Discord and Harmony

I have been wondering a lot lately about the relationship between discord and harmony in life. In part, my preoccupation has been triggered by political forums that seem to be getting more and more ballistic in nature and less civil in tone. Even in Christian circles where we know our unity to be in Christ, believers on all sides of any particular issue tend to hunker down behind walls protecting their own preferences--in music and worship, for example--than to center on seeking in common Christ's will and way.

I am thankful for every reminder that the tensions separating us from each other are not new. It is also important, I realize, not to see discord as separate entirely from harmony. After all, honest differences of opinion can help to correct false harmonies that themselves are discordant with truth. They can also, as in music, add richness to the score, notes that waken us from the sameness in our hearing, jarring us to attention.

Surely there is a higher road we need to negotiate in dealing with each other in the body of Christ. And, in my own mind, taking that higher road requires a renewed commitment to focus on Christ and listen carefully for the signs of his presence in the thought and life of others, no matter how different from us.

Sparring with one another will get us nowhere, for what we communicate in that sparring-- even though we may deny it--is a kind of body-language disdain that is less than helpful and only furthers our divides. Nor is it helpful to ask surrogates to speak for us, thus avoiding the civil and personal conversations that honor every one's place in Christ's body.

May the Lord help each of us to understand, as David Nyvall once wrote, that "even the best interests may become discordant and inharmonious. But they may also be in concord and tuned to a harmonious hymn [of] praise [to] the Lord."

We cannot live behind walls of our own making. We must move out to one another in love, not afraid to express our feelings, but open as well to what Christ may be saying to us through others. In the long run, praying for and seeking together the will of our Lord will be far more rewarding than simply seeking life on our own terms. "He who seeks his own life," Jesus said, "will surely lose it. But he who loses his life for my sake and the gospel's shall find it."