“I’m having trouble with my toe!” my good friend told me over the phone.
“Well, really my whole foot. My toes hurt so bad. It’s hard to walk even in my good tennis shoes; I’m going to have to go to the doctor,” she continued.
Later, she called me back.
“I’m going to have to have surgery on my foot! I don’t want to, but the doctor says I need to if I want to be able to walk, and he doesn’t know how I’ve been able to walk the way it must be hurting now. And you know it has been killing me,” she said.
She came home in wrappings and a soft boot along with a scooter that she puts her leg down on at the knee with her foot hanging off the back of the scooter pad.
That scooter isn’t as easy as it looks! She has had to keep all weight off her foot, getting up and moving around only when absolute necessary, and keeps pillows under the repaired foot.
“And I get so tired of sitting in my chair: my back and shoulders hurt. It is so hard not to be able to get up and do anything!”
A toe is a small part of our body, but look what can happen when that toe is out of commission and the whole foot is affected. After surgery, bruising, swelling and pain fill the once healthy foot. Next, the leg is in the constricting boot and can’t be used. The knee is hurt pressing on the scooter and trying to balance. The hip gets sore from the different way of trying to walk and get around. All parts of our bodies are important!
Think about the church. All members are important for the gift God has given them. Not everyone is gifted and called to be a pastor, pia-nist, teacher or deacon. Each person called to be a Christian is given a gift or gifts by the Holy Spirit. Those gifts are to be used in the Body of Christ, the church.
What are your gifts? What if you are not using them for Christ? Just as the body can’t function as intended without all its parts, the church needs all its members and their gifts to complete their mission for Christ! I Corinthians 12 explains how the Body of Christ is made up of many parts: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (27)
Reflect. Are you fulfilling your part? Are you stopping your church from functioning in some way?
Do you need spiritual surgery to get the sin out and the service in?
