A world divided cannot stand

e can learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp. Some are bright and some are dull. Some have weird names. There are a multitude of different colors, but they all live in the same box.

That’s what our world is like. People are like the crayons - each one unique and different in countless ways. Like the crayons, we all inhabit the same space and live in the same world. And this world is too small for walls.

Walls are built for two reasons: to keep someone or something out; or to keep someone or something in. Either way, the function of the wall is to act as a barrier – a divider. Some walls can be literal like the Great Wall in China that was built to block the nation from intrusions. Other walls can be emotional walls or walls we have created in our minds. These are the most dangerous.

The Bible says, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.”

These are powerful words. The holy scriptures tell us that any kingdom or place that has divisions within will not stand – that means it will be destroyed. The consequences of walls, or divisions of any kind, are destruction and despair.

Historically, we see this scripture play out in times of war. Any time groups of people created divisions amongst themselves and battled each other, the friction resulted in deaths, tears, bloodshed, and a lack of peace.

If a small house divided against itself cannot stand, what does this mean for the world? A world divided against itself cannot stand.

When Jesus was about to die on the cross He took the time to say a prayer like this, “those who believe in me…may become one. May they be brought to complete unity.”

That is the purpose of human life. That is the goal for our world today- to eradicate any walls. To be one, believe in one, and become one.

The secret to achieving this unity is to remember that we are part of the same family. Walls are only hard to break when we walk without the realization that we all come from one Father, one creator. In essence, when we hurt someone, we are actually hurting ourselves.

A father once asked his three sons to break a group of wooden sticks in half. None of the sons could do it. The father then showed them that when the sticks are in a group, they are tougher to break. The only way to break them is when they are divided into smaller piles. The key lesson the father was giving his sons was that it is easy to divide and then conquer but when people stand together it’s hard to bring them down or destroy them. That’s because there is strength in unity.

Sadly the world today has become disjointed. Not so much by outside forces like mother nature but by quarrels from within. People are fighting with each other over issues and barriers they themselves created.

The way to bring unity and peace in the world is to quit building emotional, mental or physical walls around ourselves. The question arises, how can we do that on an individual level?

Here are four practical ways to work on bringing unity in our lives:

• Be humble. It’s a great thing if you don’t always have to have the last word. It’s an even greater thing is you don’t let your ego take center stage in your relationships. Humility is the foundational stone for unity. It brings you down to earth so that you walk in awareness that you are not better than anyone; rather you are one and the same as everyone else, equals in God’s eyes.
  
  
• Avoid gossip. Gossip can destroy relationships and friendships. It also has a tendency to feed on negative thoughts, thereby creating ‘walls’ in your heart.
  
  
• Don’t label people. Labels are the root cause of so many problems because they demean people. They inadvertently create barriers between people and often blind us to the good in others. Labels emphasize the differences in people and hence they accomplish the opposite of unity.
  
  
• Don’t hold grudges. Learn to forgive easily. Sometimes we don’t outright create walls between us and others but it happens more unconsciously. Like when we are mad at someone about something but we don’t communicate that with them. Instead we bottle our negative emotions up and internally hold a grudge against that person. This is not only unhealthy but again, it creates barriers in our relationships, households and our world.
  

Simply remembering that we all come from the same Father -that we are actually one and the same- will help us apply these characteristics in our daily lives. But more than that, it will ensure a united world around us and peace and harmony in our hearts.