Joints

 

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4: 15-16 (ESV)

I came on the race with the hope to find out which part of the body of Christ I am. The note at the beginning of this blog is a note I wrote during training camp for what my hope for the race was. I am half way in and I am becoming more aware of my role, my skills and my giftings. I am also learning that we all can grow and be any part of the body that we need to for the work of God to continue, so there is no discounting that. 

During a feedback session around the little wooden table that means so much to me in the village of Kotodesh, Albania, we went around and shared with the person across from us what part of the body we were. 

Alyssa, one of my team mates and my fellow logistics pro, had me. She used to work in a physical therapy facility and was very familiar with the body and how it works. So she proceeded to let me know she feels I am the JOINTS in the body of Christ. 

She went on to explain that joints keep you moving smoothly, just like I do for our team. Joints also prevent bones from rubbing against one another which prevents a lot of pain (I am very familiar with this pain because my maternal grandmother suffered with Rheumatoid Arthritis from a very young age). She went on to say that in the same regard as the joints act between bones, I have the ability to be a peacemaker in groups. Alyssa shared that I provide a sense of stability in our team and squad just as joints do in the body. I learned that joints are actually the thing that direct the motion of a specific bone, and in the same way I silently help P Squad move in the right direction too.

Joints, as you might have thought when I brought them up, are often times forgotten or overlooked, maybe even considered useless unless you know the pain of weak or deteriorating joints. 

I have learned that we often just live life taking for granted the breath we breathe, the steps we take, the auto-pilot movements and things we do until we experience an injury or pain (or worse) to one part of the body. You then discover what it means to have to compensate for the weak or missing part and how much you need each little part of what’s inside you no matter how seemingly small. In the same way we are a body of believers and no part is unnecessary. We are all uniquely made to fulfill roles and to work together to represent Jesus Christ to the world!

So its a cool journey that I am on, to get to slow down, be with a tight knit group of people who are both similar and yet so different than me and get to put into practice “the body of Christ” in real tangible ways. You learn where and how you are uniquely gifted and are given the chance to shine but also call others into that and grow them in areas that are not easy or second nature for them. The other shoe fits too, where I am having to grow in areas that are not easy for me or that I have to really think or try hard or learn more in order to step into.

What body of Christ are you? Please remember what 1 Corinthians 12: 12-27 says:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 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. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that

we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.