We Can't Even Get Along on the Way There
By Pastor Justin Cooper
Pack the car. Load up the snacks. Grab the kids. Pull out of the driveway.
It never fails. You haven't even hit the interstate and somebody's already complaining. Are we there yet? Did we put the garage door down? Why does he keep touching me?
You love these people. You booked this trip. You even googled road trip games. And still — fifteen miles out and you're white-knuckling the wheel wondering how a vacation became a deposition.
Listen, the Israelites knew exactly what that felt like. Three times a year, they packed up and made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship God. And if you can picture that caravan — hundreds of families, all headed the same direction, supposedly for the same reason — you can also imagine all the squabbling that went along with it.
David saw it. And he wrote Psalm 133.
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" — Psalm 133:1
That word behold — it's not a word you throw around. You don't walk into a fast food joint and say "behold" when they hand you your order. But you step up to the Grand Canyon? You look out over something vast and magnificent and completely unexpected? That's when behold comes out of you.
David is saying: this is that rare. This is that breathtaking. People in the family of God — same heart, same love, same direction — actually getting along.
And y'all, I'll be honest. Have you ever stopped to notice how rare that really is?
I've seen churches split over carpet. I've seen families fall apart over a Facebook comment. I've watched marriages erode because two people who love the Lord somehow forgot how to show grace to each other. And every time it happens, it's the same culprit.
"Sin is the great divider. But salvation is the great unifier." — Pastor Justin Cooper
Sin divides. It always has. Ever since that first garden and that first bite of something they had no business eating, sin has been pulling people apart from God and from each other.
But salvation? That's where it changes. That's where God puts you back in the family. He reconciles you to himself — and then he starts knitting you to each other. Not forcing you into the same room. Knitting your hearts together the way a grandmother works yarn into something warm and whole.
Here's your Monday morning question: Is there somebody in your life — in your marriage, your family, your church — that you're near but not actually with? In the same house but not in the same heart?
Unity doesn't just happen on its own. It costs something. It costs one sinner deciding to show mercy to another sinner. One person choosing love when their flesh wants to choose resentment.
That's not weakness. That's the most God-like thing you can do today.
Gospel Light Baptist Church | Walkertown, NC
