Unity rather than Uniformity

My great desire is for unity, not uniformity. When I was considering doing an advanced degree, a professor recommended that I attend a school that was not Baptist. He said that I was raised and taught as a Baptist, and I needed someone who would challenge my “Baptist beliefs.” My Baptist beliefs can be described as my “imbedded theology” or “what mama and them taught me.” So, I ended up in a school of another denomination. I valued and respected the folks I knew from that other denomination even though I did not know much about their history or beliefs. I enrolled and, sure enough, there were times when I would share my thoughts and beliefs and someone would ask, “Rick, where did you get that interpretation of those verses? That is not how I interpret them.” In those gentle but challenging questions and relationships, my learning and spiritual maturity began to deepen. I began to grow more deeply in the spiritual life rather than more isolated with my imbedded beliefs. Uniformity may look like certainty, and it is our ego nature to want the security of certainty. Our spiritual nature however values the questions, more than certainty. If I have no questions and everything is certain, then why would I need faith? I am grateful for that wise professor’s guidance. There is an enormous difference between unity and uniformity.