Better together

Have you ever really stopped to consider your knee? As a stand alone it makes no sense at all. It’s peculiar and knobbly and has very little use! But slot this ugly looking joint between a thigh bone and a shin bone and suddenly you have ballet and bouncing babies, soccer and circus acts, triathlons and towers to conquer!

Sometimes I sit and ponder why God made me. Growing up in this individualistic and disconnected culture, I have an unconscious disadvantage in answering that question successfully. The reality is that God made me for others. And He made you for others too.

We exist for His glory and the good of humankind.

We only ever make sense together. We are all knees.... Except we aren’t. We are all different parts. Distinct and essential and only fully functioning when joined to all the other parts.

1 Corinthians 12 discusses this concept more fully. I have read it many times before, but re-reading it again today, I wanted to encourage us all towards three healthy responses:

Submitting to Christ

When we are saved we are given one Holy Spirit and are formed into one body. It’s asupernatural act of God. How incredible that ‘God has placed each part in the body just as He wanted it to be.’ We are loved and wanted and planned and purposed. And we have Christ as our head. Christ ‘the anointed one’, our Sovereign King. He is the lifeblood running through the veins of his perfectly imperfect body.

There is a bigger picture in play, a vaster plan afoot! Only Jesus knows the whole story, but today, each of us can play our tiny part in submitting to Christ.... by loving the person He has placed in front of us. In this way, His body grows and He is exalted.

Living boldly, free from comparison

1 Corinthians 12:4-7,15 & 19 tells us ‘There are different kinds of gifts. But they are allgiven to believers by the same Spirit. There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord. There are different ways the Spirit works. But the same God is working in all these ways and in all people.  

The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all. Suppose the foot says, ‘I am not the hand. So I don’t belong to the body.” If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body?’

In community with others, we can quite easily become crippled by comparison, or we can flourish in the grace and gifting that the God has chosen for us. Wholeheartedly applying ourselves to our gifts and strengths, for the good of all. Honouring the ‘special way’ the Holy Spirit is given to us. No matter how high or lowly that way may be. The true beauty is in the tapestry not the thread. Together we are a fearsome army, a fruitful family, a breathtaking bride!

Embracing humility and heartache

Just when you thought you might get too big-headed with your own usefulness andimportance within the body, God in His kindness ensured that it is IMPOSSIBLE to succeed alone. We need each other.

‘The eye can't say to the hand, "I don't need you!” The head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you!” In fact, it is just the opposite. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are the ones we can't do without.’

How utterly humbling! To rely on others. To only see and understand in part. To require the assistance of people who we might otherwise judge or pity. God is so so good to us. To protect us from pride, self-sufficiency and selfishness in this way. To keep turning our eyes back to him, and back to our brothers and sisters. To keep our hearts soft towards each other. His divine plan is that ‘All of them will take care of one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honoured, every part shares in its joy.’

Living this way is infinitely harder. But in the words of Jack Johnson, who is actually just paraphrasing King Solomon, who is actually just paraphrasing God "yeah, it's always better when we're together!"