“Small wonder that pride gives birth to division, and love to unity.” (St. Augustine)  Let me share two stories – one ending in division, and the other in unity. 

As an attorney for an oil company for most of my career, I saw many examples of St. Augustine’s statement play out in the corporate world, particularly in cases involving multi-party litigation.  In one such case a west coast oil company had filed a patent on a particular gasoline formula mandated by the state of California.  Since the gasoline formula was required by a state regulation, everyone assumed the formula was in the public domain and could not be patented.   Still, the company who filed the patent brought a patent infringement case against all other refiners selling gasoline in the state.  

So, we had one plaintiff company on one side and a dozen defendant companies on the other.  Sometimes there would be as many as thirty lawyers present at the defendants’ joint counsel meetings.  The pride of supposed expertise of a number of the lawyers made it difficult to establish a unified defense. As a result, a case characterized by some of the defendants as a “slam dunk,” was lost at both trial and on appeal. 

Let me offer a contrasting example.  When I retired, I went to work for Christians in Commerce, now d/b/a WorkLight, a Christian ministry to the workplace.   After about a year, we brought our executive committee together to pray about our vision and mission, and the direction the ministry would take in future years. 

The Executive Committee was made up of five people with very diverse business backgrounds, including leadership positions in banking, advertising, insurance, a former international airline pilot and myself.   In spite of our diversity, we all had a love for God, respect for one another and a desire to seek God’s will for the ministry. 

We spent the first day primarily in prayer and discussion with the following scripture becoming prominent in our thinking: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)  This gave rise to the belief that God wanted us to expand his kingdom by “being Christ in the workplace.”  We believed he was calling us to encourage and equip Christians to bring his presence into their workplaces in terms of how work is done. 

Our love for God and one another brought a unity of purpose at the time and into the future.  As the years advanced, this unity evolved into our mission, “to encourage and equip Christians to be God’s presence in the workplace by the power of the Holy Spirit, exercising faith, integrity and excellence.”

There is no limit to what unity in the love of God and one another can accomplish!

How do you strive for unity in your workplace?