This summer the Disciples held their biennial youth event for high school students, ICYF, in Orange, California. I was there representing Transylvania University and STEP. During the one of the last worship services, while everyone was singing, someone was onstage assembling the pieces of a communion table, decorated by youth during their pre-assembly mission projects. It was beautifully decorated, but there was something that seemed wrong with it. The legs were shaped oddly and the two support pieces did not look good. One was significantly shorter than the other and they were attached at odd angles to the legs. I sat through the entire service pondering why they went to all the trouble to create and decorate the table when they were just going to leave it lopsided. When the man was finished he stood and turned the table towards the audience. All of a sudden the legs and supports formed a chalice with St. Andrew's cross in the center.

To me this just seemed to be a perfect analogy to the Christian body. Each one of us is a colorful individual, with our own shape and size. We are all put together as part of a larger plan. A lot of times, that plan is not clear, and we find ourselves at odds with each other based on opinions or theology. But as soon as we put our focus where it should be, out of our differences a beautiful image is formed.

The next week, I was in Montreal for the 34th General Assembly of the World Student Christian Federation. The diversity was astonishing: over 100 delegates from close to 65 countries and a plethora of faith traditions. Needless to say, there were numerous conflicts about the priorities and position of the Federation. But even with all those differences, a harmony reverberated throughout the assembly. It was a harmony which only faith can bring, and a harmony that brought peace and understanding when it was needed the most. It was the ability for people to share the struggles that their movements were fighting and to find people who would stand in solidarity in the fight against injustice. It was the opportunity to sit down and talk in order to break through the barriers of stereotypes and prejudices.

There will always be conflicts and difficulties when we are working with others, but we will always project a beautiful image and do amazing things together if we remember that we are call to do them as Christians.