Serving Where You Fit

Last month I served alongside twenty-two teens and six adults as we repaired sections of a church in Daytona, FL, which was damaged by a recent hurricane (as it had back in 2016 by Hurricane Matthew as well). Among the twenty-nine of us, only two of our team members were professional contractors.

Unfortunately, volunteer work often equates to less than diligent work. That type of work dishonors God. So, we went to serve by giving our best. Speaking for myself, the work would not have been as well done, even with such commitment to diligent labor, without the two professionals. I do not have their knowledge or skill sets. But they taught us. Because of the skill, willingness to teach, and patience of those two, our team did a really good job at restoring the church’s kitchen and Fellowship Hall. (Thank you, Seth and Sterling!)

Our team’s purpose was fulfilled because we all served as we were fit. Leaders led. Followers followed. Teachers taught. Workers worked. And people like me left the tasks calling for skilled labor to those qualified to provide it. Our team (nearly three dozen in number) acted as the Body of Christ. We, as a part of the Church, served brothers and sisters in the state farthest away from us.

As I think about our mission trip, I think of Paul’s words to the church in Corinth.

1 Corinthians 12:12-25 (NIV)
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

If you are a Christian, you are a vital part of the Body of Christ.

• Do you know where you fit?
• Are you serving?
• Do you support those who lead?
• Do you practice patience with those who follow?

God created the Church and His creation is a brilliant work of art and wisdom. We need to act like what we are. We do that by recognizing our role in the Body and serving in that role with faithfulness.
     "As it is, there are many parts, but one body."

#ordinarylives