Jesus’ “high priestly prayer” in John 17 is known as such because Jesus stands before God the Father and prays earnestly on behalf of the church, similar to what a High Priest would do for the Jewish people. Jesus’ prayer is filled with longing to see the church be unified, to be “one” in the same mysterious, unbreakable way that God is one between Father, Son and Spirit. He even goes so far as to say that when the church is “one” in this way, there will be no greater proof for Jesus being who He says He is- God in the flesh. Remembering this prayer may be great to motivate us for a time, but can be gut-wrenching when we look around and see how the church falls short of that kind of unity. That is because the enemy seeks to thwart our attempts at this unity by discouraging, distracting, discrediting, and dividing us (or using us to discourage, distract, discredit, or divide others within the church). The good news is that as Christians, we have One inside of us that is greater than these attempts. At the cross, Jesus is strong enough to carry the weight of our disunity-causing-sin, freeing us for the oneness that reflects the glory of God. We cannot be For the Valley if we are not for one another.