Agreement over Unity?

While on one of my several walks through the neighborhood today, I listened to a podcast that really spoke to me.

Let me give you some background.

I am friends on Facebook with persons who have a different ideology and political and religious convictions than I do.  Lately, some of the posts by one in particular have been so against everything I believe to be true.

Most of the time I can let it slide and consider the source.  If you know me, you probably have a good idea how difficult this is for me.  The other day, something was posted to which I couldn't resist making a response.  (Is this one of those "the devil made me do it moments?) 

Well let me just tell you that the comments I got to my 3 word rebuttal from people who are total strangers to me involved words and descriptions of my mental capacity, health, morality, and other aspects of my character.

I had a dilemma.  Was unity more important than agreement?  How could I display a Christian spirit on social media while being in total disagreement with most of what this person and his/her followers post?  

I chose UNITY!

I realized that if I continued to see that person's posts, that go against my beliefs, I would not maintain a spirit of unity with this person on a personal level.

So, I hit the BLOCK button!

This way, I will not be tempted to get snappy and/or divisive.  We will remain distant friends who disagree without resentment.

Another example was someone who disagreed with something I wrote on someone else's post.  We were able to carry on a written conversation about our differences without being cruel or ugly.  I soon realized that although we disagreed on one point, we had other things on which we do agree.

We ended our conversation with a mutual respect for each other.  I even learned that he is a 2nd cousin I didn't know I had.

In this case, UNITY inspite of disagreement was the end result as well.  Just handled differently.

How do we handle fights or disagreements whether with a friend, in the home or on social media?

First, we don't need to be defensive.  This is a hard one for me.

We need to see if there is something in the disagreement that we can or need to learn from.

Could there be something in us that we are dealing with that has nothing to do with the actual disagreement or person?

Is there a way to smooth over the argument or disagreement without compromising your own convictions?

How can we show God's love in and through the situation by being more understanding or forgiving?

There are times when we need to move away.  We need to separate a while in order to cool off and come to an understanding of how to proceed in a healthy way.

I think the best thing I learned from the podcast this morning was reminding myself to simply ask God, "How can I love this person well in this disagreement?"

Sometimes, it is enough to take someone's hand and simply say, "I want you to know I am fighting for our relationship not against you."

These are days that accentuate differences and especially in an election year we will be tempted to argue and disagree.  Let us take the high road even if it means moving away from a social media friend in order to retain UNITY and allow God to work in our heart.