Body of Christ

One of the speakers in church today brought to light a cool analogy that resonated with me.  It’s not new, but it was something I think I needed to hear.  He was talking about the Body of Christ.  How we, as members make up that body.  He compared it to our physical bodies.  He mentioned how each of our bodies started out as one cell, then split into two, and then four and so on.

At first, the cells were all identical.  It but then as the body develops, there are different needs, and cells adapt to meet those needs.

He brought up how absurd it would be for a brain cell to tell a fingernail cell that it isn’t fitting the proper mold… or perhaps that it is not doing the right thing because the fingernail cell doesn’t look like the brain cell.  They were designed with different purposes in mind!  (the same comparison can be found in 1 Corinthians 12)

I think this analogy really resonated with me because I have been thinking about missionary work, an my role in the global missionary effort.  I often feel like perhaps my job, or cellular missionary specialization, is not important.  This mindset really hit me after I was released as a full-time missionary.  I felt like in Russia I was “an important part” of the machine – I was on the front lines, so to speak, and felt like I was making a difference.  And then when I got back to the real world, I didn’t feel like I was needed quite as much. And I didn’t see how I would be able to help with the spread of the Gospel from my current position.

But I think we all need to take a second and evaluate really what kind of a contribution we can make.  What are our strengths?  What is our sphere of influence?  Where can we make a difference?  I am confident that if we do this with a prayerful conscience, that God will hook it up with a clear path for us.  We all have value in His plan and in His missionary efforts.  We all have a place, sometimes we just have to work a little harder to find it.

1 Corinthians 12

4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.