The Body of Christ
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be?
1 Corinthians 12:15-19
Written by: Heidi Farris
Hello I’m Heidi and I Pour Coffee for Life. On Monday, we talked about my very unimportant job of serving coffee at church. Notice I said, “my.” That's when it bothers me. I was not focused on the whole body of Christ, I was focused on me. The peculiar part about writing Monday's devotion was that when I was looking for examples of more notable jobs in the church, it was hard. There's actually a bunch of people behind the scenes at church and very few out front. The fact of the matter is God designed His church just like He designed our bodies. His church and our bodies are made up of countless parts–big and minuscule, noticeable and hidden, all members of a team, all teams working together to reach one very important goal. Life.
God spoke this reminder through Paul in his letter to the Corinthians because He knew we would have our moments when we needed to hear it.
The average human body has 78 organs, 206 bones, 600 muscles, and trillions of cells!
The more notable body parts need these organs, bones, muscles and cells to function properly.
Have you ever heard of the pituitary gland? The pituitary gland sits beneath the base of the human brain, behind the bridge of the nose. It is the size of a pea. It's deep, protected and unnoticed by us. But this hidden “pea” produces hormones that regulate our growth, blood pressure, conversion of food to energy, water balance, reproductive organ function, body temperature, and pain relief. That's quite an important body part! I've had one for 54 years now and I just found out about it yesterday! But now that we know about the mighty pituitary gland, let's not put that pituitary on a pedestal either. Remember, it needs all the other parts of the body for it to do it's job effectively.
Do you see what Paul was saying? Christ's family depends on all of us! Every one of us is counted on and equally important. I love these tangible examples God shows us to help us understand His Big Plan!
It's actually very beautiful–just like everything else our perfect Creator has designed.
That said, I have an assignment for you. It's time to ask yourself a few questions:
What is my job in the body of Christ?
If I don't have a job, what can I do?
If I do have one, am I functioning properly? Am I pursuing this job with the full knowledge that the health of my function impacts all the other members?
My friend, the church needs you. Parking lot duty, children’s church preparation, audio visual, outreach by phone or in person, emotional support, leading small groups, ministry in local shelters, missions across the globe, sweeping and vacuuming, food prep, shoveling, yard work...I could go on and on! Find your purpose and embrace it as if you are supporting life, because you are.