the body

My thanksgiving break did not go as planned. I did not eat way too much food, I did not watch football, and I certainly did not drink coffee. I did, however, spend most of my time sleeping, dead to the world. Why? Because all day on Thanksgiving, beginning at five in the morning and continuing the rest of the day at regular thirty minute increments, I puked my guts out. Literally. And in somewhere in the process of self-diagnosis, I learned that the more accurate name for my bout of puking was not 'the stomach flu' but instead is 'viral gastroenteritis'. I know this because both my stomach and my intestines were affected. Need I say more?

Saturday evening, when I was catching my flight out of Denver to come back to the glorious Midwest, I reached in my backpack to pull out a book and gave myself a paper cut under my finger nail. 

I am not telling you these stories to earn your pity or your care packages (although the latter is always dearly appreciated). I am telling you these stories because both hurt me. In different ways and at different levels of pain, yes, but both- even for just a short amount of time- altered the way I functioned. 

Friends, what I am about to say is nothing new: we are the body of Christ. Each one of us has a different function- a function that God has created us to fulfill to bring him glory. Do we even recognize when our inner workings are not functioning properly? Could it be that our churches are metaphorically vomiting because we have not taken the time to figure out where our internal systems are not working properly? Or maybe we do know they are not working properly; have we taken the time to fix them?

At the same time, are the hands of our Church willingly putting themselves in places where they could be cut and hurt under the most sensitive part of their hand- their finger nail? Are we willing to reach out to the hurting, knowing that it is our job to share in their hurt? Are we willing to be compassionate? And most of all, are we willing to unify together and experience what all the different parts of the body are doing together? 

The finger needs the brain and the nerves to tell it when it has been hurt. The body automatically knows that throwing up is not a daily habit to take part in. Likewise, the Church needs its head, Christ, to tell her when things are not as they should be. It then becomes the Church's job to reach out and become the tangible method of redemption, with Christ always at the forefront. 

Friends, be thankful for your Body. Know the part you are in it, and actually be the part you are. The body needs the inner workings of intestines as much as it needs the hands. Believe me, I know.