Worlds Colliding!!!

Last week I got the opportunity to attend a prayer retreat with my seminary class on, you guessed it, Prayer. It was a very interesting time.
First of all, it was great to get to know people in my class. I am only out at school Monday mornings, so I don't know many people very well. We got to spend two days getting to know one another. I got to meet everyone (there are 20 of us), and got to spend some meaningful time with a number of people.
More than that, though, the cool thing about the retreat was that it was a pretty diverse group. There was certainly some diversity in ethnicity and in age, but there was also a lot of denominational diversity. It was a prayer retreat, and we got to experience the fact that we all prayed and worshiped differently. In particular, I got to experience prayer with brothers and sisters who are from a more charismatic tradition. I was so blessed by the opportunity to experience togetherness with people whose Christian experience is so different from mine. After all, our differences seemed to be small when we were praying and seeking God together.
I am so thankful for the body of Christ. God is such a genius in making us all so different. God is really stretching me in getting out of my comfort zone, both culturally and theologically. He is teaching me so much about how to be humble and learn from those who are different from me. I am so thankful for what I get to experience when I do this.

For he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

I know this passage in Ephesians is talking about Jews and Gentiles, but it certainly seems to be applicable to God's heart in breaking down walls and bringing people together in Christ.
Enmity is put to death. Someone who disagree with me theologically is not my enemy. Someone who does church differently than me is not my enemy. Someone who prays differently, someone who frequently gives me "a word from the Lord," someone who dances while they sing songs to God, someone who simply sits in silence and prays to God. All of these are people who are not enemies.
He is our peace. He has established peace. Peace is not just the absence of conflict. It is not superficial. It is me looking at someone with whom I disagree with and clash with and embracing who they are. That's hard sometimes. I want to just avoid people because it is hard to be at peace with them. Can I, though, experience deep fellowship with a brother or sister who does things so differently? Why not?! Do I really think that I am not off-base in anything I do or believe? Seems a bit arrogant. Do I really not have anything to learn from others, even if they do, in fact, have things to learn from me? Seems a bit off.
Peace is a powerful thing. And Jesus said that others will know us by our love. One brother on this retreat mentioned this verse and then said, "And Jesus never told a lie." His implication was that Jesus said we would be known for love, and yet someone might conclude that he lied about this, since often we are not.
It is not the time to criticize.
It is the time to be part of healing and reconciliation.
It is time to be part of peace at a real, deep level that will show people the Person who is our true peace.