more on unity

this started as a comment replying to comments on let's not do what i'm doing, but i wanted to expound a bit more, so here's a follow-up to it in a whole new blog entry. yeah!!

i would love to see us (the body of christ) learn to find value in each other rather than trying to figure out who's better or righter. life is full of variety and i, as much or more than anyone, tend to define things by their differences instead of their similarities. this sort of deductive reasoning can be helpful in making observations but also has led me (many, many, many, many, many times) down a path that leads to polarization of people and issues. i mean, we all see the differences between the two approaches, there are a lot of similarities between them as well which can (and i think should) be celebrated.

1. both are interested in seeing people come to a greater understanding of god's love for mankind.
2. both are willing to make such endeavors a high priority (maybe the apex) of their lives.
3. both care for people very much (just express it differently)
4. both are interested in being as effective as possible communicating the truth as they see it. (i.e. both use the prolific medium of video with some manner of creative reinforcement as opposed to a simple talking head)

why is it so hard for me to look for similarities in the first place? here's an analogy that's helping me to understand this better.

question: who loves a child more, a parent who raises a child to understand healthy boundaries by offering both praise and correction, or a grandparent who's main goal is to make sure that child has the best time they've ever had, every minute of every day?

answer (at least according to me): they fulfill different roles in the child's life, so comparing which is better or worse is like asking whether you need air or water to survive. i'll take both please.