righteous unity vs. division

2 Chronicles 21
Jehoram was a bad king. He slaughtered his brothers so there would be no one to take over his throne but himself. He rebelled against the Lord and followed in the ways of Ahab and the prophets of Baal. There was war in the land and Edom (one of the other tribes of Israel) rebelled against Judah because of Jehorams' unrighteous rule. V.10 says that Edom has been in rebellion ever since.

This hits a strong cord with me, especially when looking at other denominations of the church. How many divides have there been in the church that began with some form of unrighteous practice, and a small group of pioneers seeking to correct the wrong. But even in seeking out a new form of 'right' worship, what we have too easily held strong was the things that divide rather than the Person who brings us all together.

How easy is it to nurse a grudge, and how difficult is it to say "I'm sorry"...too often it seems we'd rather be right than unified, and would rather bolster our way than seek out God's way together.

I've been nursing a grudge towards Tarah this week, and it stunk. We couldn't talk to eachother without our words jabbing into eachother like arrows. We couldn't eat in the same room, or have a civil conversation because of the Grudge that was stewing under the surface of everything we were doing. She tried to adress it with me, but I was still stewing, trying to hide in some comfortable place within the misery...doesn't work, so I learned! Grudge stew just kept bubbling and stewing, and boiling over and getting yucky grudge mess all over both of us and anyone standing near enough to get slopped on...finally, God was like, "Okay, Aurora, how long are you going to live with this junk?? You tired yet? You sick of it yet? You ready to hear the truth now?" Funny thing, getting things out in the open was a whole lot less painful than I was afraid it would be. The Grudge monster has lost his bite, praise the Lord!