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"May They Be One"
By John Featherston
Why am I always surprised when it happens again?! We have a standing ritual at our house. Every time I serve on a team I walk in the door Sunday night and my wife asks, "How did it go?" Every time I have the same answer: "Absolutely the very best yet."
Well, it always is! I just finished serving as Spiritual Director for Walk #127. At the team communion Thursday evening I gave everyone a medallion with the words "Expect a Miracle" engraved on it. We did . . .and it was. The movement of this remarkable God-given ministry never ceases to take my breath away. Faith is deepened. Sin is dealt a serious blow. Damaged marriages begin to heal. Relationships are mended. Wounds are treated. Friendships that will last into eternity are launched. The hopeless find hope. The helpless find help. Heaven claims victories. Hell suffers defeat. Every time.
I was talking to a preacher buddy of mine this week who has never experienced the Emmaus miracle. He said, "John, what is it with you and this Emmaus deal? I know you're as busy as I am. You sure spend a lot of time with this thing."
I told him, "You and I, professionally, are up to our necks in 'spiritual experiences.' We've done every workshop, lectureship, seminar, retreat, conference, and camp a dozen times each. This is profoundly different."
Why is that? What's the difference here that changes people so completely?
Several things obviously come to mind. The saturation of prayer provides an almost physical sensation. When I walk into the room I can feel the absence of the Enemy. There is no place for him to be under a cover of prayer that thick. The relentless practice of true "agape"- the practice of absolute love that expects nothing in return - is so "Christ-like" that one can feel him standing in the middle of us. There are so many reasons for the flow of that power, but for me one stands above all the others.
In the most desperate prayer that Jesus ever
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prayed, he asked for the things that mattered to him the most. After he had prayed for the apostles, he prayed for us. He said: "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you're in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:20-21)
Jesus wants so intensely for his people to climb over their walls, and out of their boxes, and be one Body with each other. The ugliness of denominationalism is the cleverest trick in hell's arsenal. If the Enemy can convince us to love the Lord, and not love each other, his job is done. He can just sit back and laugh while the whole world looks at us in confusion. There's enough bickering, fighting, and competing in this world. Why would anybody want to sign up for another batch on Sunday?!
I thank God all over again for this miracle, this priceless gift, that God has given us. I am thankful that God, through the Emmaus experience, keeps teaching me to look at you through a fresh set of lenses. When I see you, I don't see "the competition down the street." I see family...brothers and sisters that I would bleed for if bleeding was needed. I thank God, that in an ugly world gone mad, there are little pockets like ours where a desperate prayer in a Garden a long time ago keeps being answered over and over. "May they be one, Father, so the world will believe that you sent me." Jesus looks down on The Walk to Emmaus...and smiles!
DeColores!
John Featherston
Red River Men's Walk #14, Table of John
(Reprinted from The Upper Room Walk to Emmaus®. Copyright © 2001 by The Upper Room)
John Featherston is the newly elected Spiritual Director of the Denton Area
Emmaus Community.
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