Pastor Dan Lamos is bringing the Monday Minute to you this week. He is a pastor at Kings Church who has a heart for God, encouraging others and seeing His power bring freedom and transformation in peoples' lives.
Today, as I am writing this to you, I have completed one week of my six-week recovery program. I am mending from a torn Achilles tendon. I will be hobbling around on crutches and a hard moulded Achilles boot for a month and a half. After enduring the first seven days, I am growing only a little more accustomed to life without the use of my right leg due to the non-involvement of a very small part of my body… just one tendon, known as the Achilles.
I have become extra aware of my right ankle and calf area. It has become worthy of priority attention and care from the rest of my body. All of the parts of my body, it seems, are focused on making sure that this one tendon does not suffer and has every protection needed in order to heal. And, most importantly, my whole body can not wait for my right Achilles tendon to get back to effective work… ASAP.
When the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome, he was thinking about how the parts of the human body work together. He was pondering these things in light of the church. Here is a paraphrase of what he wrote taken from The Message Bible (by Eugene Peterson), “In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.” Romans 12:4-6
I love how Peterson phrases this, “Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body.”
My Achilles tendon is an “excellently formed and marvellously functioning” part of my body. But, in its present torn condition, it is useless and a frustrating, debilitating distraction for the rest of my body. It has no positive meaning in my life because it cannot be used for its purpose. My tendon, and the rest of my body, would be blessed and at its best if this one small part could find meaning again as a working part of the rest of me.
As you look for your place and purpose as part of the church, don’t rush past how blessed you are to be a small part of the extensive Body of Christ. Ask God to make you more aware of how you can assist and add value to others around you. If you aren’t clear on what makes you unique as a Jesus follower, devote yourself in a brand new way to encouraging and strengthening your church family. In that way, we will all be blessed by you as a “marvellously functioning” part of Christ’s body, and your life will overflow with all the meaning for which you have been searching.