Diversity and unity can help us walk out of our own doors to see the outside splendor. And it can help us walk outside those doors with a friend—of a different race or tradition or stream—walking with us.

I’ve been thinking of one experience during a Sunday service at our church in Orlando. I wanted several people to pray the Lord’s Prayer aloud in their own language. I respected the English version as it was prayed—I knew the language. But as each voice prayerfully proclaimed the words in their own languages, I sensed a deeper awe. I knew not the language though I knew the prayer. I did not know these friends during their early years, but we were becoming family in that moment. The diversity was becoming united.

As a church family, we needed to state the prayers.

As a sinful leader, I needed to hear the voices, the tones, the languages, the assortment, the synchronization.

The globe was becoming small. The building’s walls were cracking open.

Together, as one, we paused. And were healed.

From the book Pause for Pastors: Finding Still Waters in the Storm of Ministry