The many caveats of Harmony

Harmony is important, and this is something that seems to be lacking in the world today. It seems to me that all people see on the internet and on the television is people not living in harmony with anyone, specifically those of opposing political or religious views.  I believe because of that, there is a great importance of looking at our word, Harmony.  I usually consider myself a pretty harmonious person.  When I took my strengthsfinder survey, I received Harmony as my third highest strength out of 40 options of strengths.  Therefore, I would say that harmony does mean a lot to me.  However, I don’t think throughout my entire life, I have lived with the “best” or healthiest harmony.  There are times that I avoided conflict at all cost, and still do.  I would rather just walk away from any problems as opposed to discuss it.  Now, I do think that there are times when this is a healthy choice, but there should be times when I should consider talking about my problems with people so myself and the other person/party can harmonically fix the problem.  Because of that, I wanted to take a look at what the Bible has to say about this word of Harmony.  

The first verse that I wanted to highlight is Romans 14:19, which is, “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”  Let us always pursue peace and harmony.  I picked this verse because I believe this is something I need to practice.  I actually want to really highlight the ending of “mutual upbuilding.” As I have mentioned, there are times that I try to avoid any conflict.  I am like a turtle in that when there is conflict, I would rather hide in my shell and avoid any confrontations.  However, while again that can be good in some cases, there are times that it will not help a group grow.  There are sometimes times when the question/conflict that you have and want to mention is stifling to the group, and the group needs to become aware of this problem to help the group grow and prosper.    

The second verse that I want to bring up is Colossians 3:14, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”  The main ingredient of creating harmony is love.  This again may seem simple, but it can at times be difficult, really difficult, to show love to those that you are disagreeing with.  However, even when we are having these disagreements, love can fix/build those bridges of disagreement.  This love best comes from Jesus.  People can live in their best harmony when they are in agreement and in harmony with Jesus Christ.  This is explained in Romans 15:5, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus.” Here is the reminder that we will always achieve our greatest harmony when we are in Christ to complete that.  

The last set of verses that I wanted to bring up is Romans 12:16-18.  These verses say, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”  There are going to be times when sadly, we won’t be liked by everybody.  We may have tried to do whatever we can to repair the relationship, and it may not always be enough.  This can be the times where we may want to act as though we are the ones that are correct and may even try to get people to be on our side.  We may talk bad about the other person or gossip about them. Even if it is hard, it is in our best interest to not repay that evil or disagreement with someone with more evil of our own. Whatever you can do, do your best to achieve peace with one another.  If there is disagreement with another, but that is because of the other person refusing to make harmony, then it is up to them.  It is now their job to create harmony with you and the situation.  

There are times when harmony is incredibly hard.  There are times when we may have frustration and general disagreement with another person or group.  This is sadly, a part of life.  However, as we can see, there are many references in the Bible that call for Harmony.  Harmony and peace is something that God prioritizes, so when those moments arise, we can take those verses as to how to achieve that harmony.  God gives us his peace and therefore we can send that peace, therefore harmony, throughout the whole world.  Sometimes we can grow from disagreements as a way to grow as a group or individual people.  We can do that especially if we care about staying at peace on our end and rely on God’s peace and harmony.  

I leave you with this final thought.  In Psalm 133:1, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” It is good when we have unity and harmony with one another as opposed to disagreement and no unity amongst people.  It is a grand thing to work hard for.  Let us all do our parts to create the unity amongst people.