As a first time momma living in temporary housing with my husband and young son, I experienced one of the scariest feelings ever. What started overnight with a meal that disagreed with me ended with being taken by my husband to the emergency room with severe dehydration and food poisoning. The scary part was that Paul had walked to work before dawn without realizing how sick I’d become and I was alone with our son in an apartment where I knew no one.
When I started down the stairs that morning, I began feeling numbness and tingling in my feet that crept up to my knees, then to my hands and chest. Aaron obediently sat on the top step with me and we scooted together to the bottom where the landline phone was plugged. After paging Paul and hanging up, I waited for him to return my call, all the while petrified that I would pass out, leaving one year old Aaron unattended.
After what seemed an eternity, Paul arrived and drove us to the hospital. I received fluids before my grandparents drove several hours to retrieve us and deliver us to my parents so Paul could return to work. The crazy thing is that my one vivid memory from that day is the loud crinkling noise made by the disposable pillow on my gurney in the emergency room.
Our bodies are amazing in their complexity. The resiliency built in by God strains reason- the ability to heal from injury, cope with varying environments, and go without proper rest and nutrition for a time, all while remaining functional is astonishing. I’ve certainly been guilty of ignoring my own body’s cues and suffering the consequences. There is a point beyond which we may lose the ability to maintain control over our extremities because our bodies are also equipped with certain failsafes designed to counter our own stubbornness or stupidity.
When was the last time you went into work sick all week and then spent the weekend in bed recovering because you couldn’t justify calling out? I know I’m not the only one ever to have said, “God knew I needed to rest.” Sometimes it’s difficult to admit our own limitations and other times it’s more difficult to rely on someone else or ask for help.
“Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning:
Don’t think you are better than you really are.
Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.
Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body.
We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.
So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.
If your gift is serving others, serve them well.
If you are a teacher, teach well.
If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.
If it is giving, give generously.
If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.
And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.”
Romans 12:3-8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.12.3-8.NLT
“Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.
If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body.
And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear?
Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.
How strange a body would be if it had only one part!
Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.
The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.”
The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.
And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care.
So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care.
So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity.
This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other.
If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.”
1 Corinthians 12:14-27 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.12.15-27.NLT
It is no coincidence that God caused the New Testament writers to use the illustration of the body when referring to the church. The older I get, the better I understand the limitations of my own body and the more sense I can make of these analogies. Acknowledging Christ as head of the body is key. God is building all who believe in His one and only Son, Jesus, as the way, the truth, and the life into one body, described both as a holy temple for God’s glory and as the body of Christ. Scripture speaks not to the world at large but directly to the believer who has been sealed by God’s own Spirit and given the mind of Christ. The things of God remain foolishness to those who don’t believe because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (I Corinthians 2:14) Recognizing who is and who is not part of the body of Christ helps us as believers understand who we can rely on to support and encourage us in our walk of faith, and who we are likewise accountable to God to support and encourage.
“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?”
1 Corinthians 3:11, 16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.3.16.NLT
“Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.
We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.
Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:20-22 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.2.20-22.NLT
“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.
Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Then we will no longer be immature like children.
We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.
We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.
As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
Ephesians 4:11-16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.4.11-16.NLT
As our spouses, families, and coworkers rely on us to pull our weight, which means doing what it takes to stay healthy so we are functioning at our best, so the church- the body of Christ- requires that we accept the place God has chosen for us within His body and serve obediently there. Sometimes that means recognizing our own limitations and sometimes it requires learning to rely on someone else and asking for help. All of this is only possible by acknowledging Jesus as Lord of my life. When Jesus is Lord then there is unity. His body, the church, is healthy and full of His love and light and the world has the best chance to see its need for our Savior.
A Fitting Reply 