I've been trying to figure myself out and trying to see how my unique talents and skills could possibly benefit the people around me. I mean, I see how my creativity, for example, is a good thing for my family because it affects our home and our daily lives, but how can I translate that skill into something that the people at Faith Reformed Church need? Maybe they don't want my style invading our calm and peaceful church building. Maybe my signature impetuous ways aren't the best thing for the beautifully staid and contemplative Reformed folks there.
1 Corinthians 12 has been a huge help to me in this struggle. Verse 15 says, "If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body”, that would not make it any less a part of the body." Yeah, sure, sometimes I feel like I don't fit in where God has put me, but this verse is telling me that I belong where I am. I may feel like I'm different from the people around me, but being different in His church is good. Different is how God designed us to be. Different helps us function well and grow. And even in those times when I'm feeling like a left foot in a right hand world, I know that somehow I'm needed right where I am. And my skills, habits, and tendencies are exactly what my church body needs.
And see, here's the best part. 1 Corinthians 12 is followed by 1 Corinthians 13- you know, that famous "love chapter"?
Paul spends a chapter talking about how each member of the church has an important part to play in the well being of the body and how necessary diversity is in the church and then he finishes with this, "And I will show you a still more excellent way." And, boom, he dives into chapter 13.
"...if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
So all that stuff he just said about how important all the members of the body are, everything I just learned about how needed I am in my church- if I don't have love, it doesn't mean shit.
Anything and everything I do, whether in my home or in my church or in my neighborhood, must flow out from a heart that is so busy with love that I don't even have time to wonder if what I'm doing is needed or appreciated.
Honestly, I'll probably still feel like the odd man out sometimes. I'll probably still doubt that I'm supposed to be here. But I'm trusting that my God will keep changing me into a person who is more concerned with loving people than with being accepted.
I'll keep doing my thing here. I'll decorate my house with oddly bright colors, plan church events, and paint rocks with the neighborhood kids. God made me a foot and so I'll be the best foot that I can be. So what if the hands around me don't understand what I'm doing? I'm not sure I understand what they're doing sometimes, but I know I need them. We're in this together. We're all the same body and we are bound together by love. I think that's all I need to understand right now.
"Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
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