“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” John 1:14 NIV
It was a quiet and chilly night on December 29, 2003, when a few other guys and I, all complete strangers, sat anxiously in a gray van as it crept along a dark and windy road. The driver, a middle-aged man about 5’10 with a sunbaked tan, would periodically make stale jokes to lighten the mood. The jokes were cringe worthy to say the least, but I still gave him credit for trying. He was kind, and he somehow managed to keep a perfectly bronzed complexion in the middle of December so that had to count for something.
Eventually we arrived at the gate where a stout guard grunted and waved us through. We proceeded slowly through the confusing lay of the land until we approached our final destination. As soon as the van rolled to a stop, the doors flew open and chaos ensued. We were herded off the van like cattle ripe for the slaughter, each person scrambling about until we found ourselves standing atop of a pair of yellow footprints. The initial shock of this new environment was jolting, to say the least. The style of these new authority figures was foreign, and the guys to my left and to my right were different. Some from South Korea, others from Central and South America, a few Haitians, a good many Northerners, quite a few Southerners, and none of us older than 22. There we stood, as mere boys, shoulder to shoulder, cold, confused, and terrified of the men who wore Smokey the Bear hats and were foaming at the mouth.
As time would soon tell, the intensity of that moment only increased. The months that followed can only be described as extended periods of physical and verbal thrashings that challenged the mind, the body, and as far as we were concerned, the boundaries of criminal law. Many times during the process we wanted to quit and go back to the familiar, but we couldn’t. There we remained; we laughed together, cried together, grew together and at the end of it all, we marched across the parade deck together. We were no longer strangers or boys but United States Marines.
A Lesson on Unity
The Marine Corps was able to achieve a high degree of unity in the midst of diversity in a relatively short amount of time. The more I pondered the underlying method of unifying military tactics, the more I realized how incredibly simple yet brilliant it was. If I could summarize it in three short words, it would be this: “Go and Stay.” You see, we were all very different people, but each person had made the decision to leave what was familiar to him and “go.” The sacrifice was on everyone’s part. Once there, the Marine Corps brought us into the same space and essentially said, “Figure it out.”
The training was tough, and during the course of it, we offended each other, didn’t get along, didn’t always agree, but we stayed together, and, as time passed, something amazing happened…we started to figure out how to be one. Bonds started to form, group cohesion developed, and before long we became brothers…
Now I would love to credit the great military minds of old for this “go and stay” strategy, but truth be told, this method was first lived out by the Lord Jesus Himself! Jesus lived in Heaven where the social order was perfect, but when it came time to bring about reconciliation and restore unity, He had to “go.” John says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”(NIV) We often think of Christ’s sacrifice in terms of the cross only, but that is an unfortunate estimation of His life. The sacrifice began the moment He decided to physically come and live with us. Having a body meant dealing with things like fatigue, thirst, hunger, pain and death, but “living” with us… that meant having to navigate the treacherous waters of fallen human relationships. That meant family issues, i.e. parents & siblings that didn’t always appreciate His mission, friends who were fickle, being betrayed, dealing with the backlash of crossing social and cultural boundaries, being misunderstood, rejected, and the list goes on. But here is the thing, as messy as that was, it was all part of the unifying process! If Christ didn’t “go and stay (live) with us,” we as believers wouldn’t be unified with God or with other believers now. John and the other disciples wouldn’t have been able to behold His glory full of grace and truth. And last but not least, the Apostles nor we would have a recipe today for how to deal with diversity and division.
Practical Unity
As mentioned earlier, what I learned from Scripture intellectually and through the Marine Corps experientially is that to have unity requires the costly decision “going and staying.” It’s a hard truth and an even harder reality. To do this, you need to be prepared to to deal with the same things Christ did, but in a more reciprocal way. That is, as you seek to unite, you will be uncomfortable, and you will make others uncomfortable. You will be misunderstood, and you will misunderstand others. You will offend and get offended. You will have to forgive and be forgiven. You will have to sacrifice; you will have to practice patience and long suffering. You will have to cross some cultural boundaries and deal with sticky subjects; you will have to deal with rejection and resistance. This is essentially true for all contexts that require unity, be it in the military, a marriage, on the mission field, or as a member of a diversified body. The process is always painful, but when we resolve to stay and practice Christ like attitudes, something beautiful happens… bonds begin to form, group cohesion starts to emerge, and unity becomes a reality.