How Does Serving Others Help Me Grow?
How Does Serving Others Help Me Grow?
Do you remember Legos? Oh, I liked Legos—still do. Do you remember getting that 250-piece Lego tank, equipped with a laundry list of directions? Did you ever just toss the directions because you knew better? Thought so, me too. It turns out those directions are incredibly important. Without them your creation never looks like the picture on the box and there are valuable pieces left unused. The same thing happens in the church.
Scripture provides valuable instruction so that we are equipped and complete (2 Timothy 3:16-17). This includes our involvement in the body, the bride of Christ, the Church. I am a fan of 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 when it comes to all things “body-life”. This is an essential passage that ensures the body looks the way the directions designed it, as well as ensuring no valuable piece (or person) is left out. As we study this passage, we gain three perspective-correcting, game-changing encouragements.
You Have Something to Offer
Paul states “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 … the body does not consist of one part but many” (v12-14). The foot offers something the hand cannot and vice versa. The pinky finger offers something the nose cannot and vice versa. Do you struggle to believe that you are needed, wanted or gifted? How many churches are functionally handicapped by unwilling body members who cannot step out in faith and accept the fact that they have something to offer the body? Be encouraged—you have something we need!
You Don’t Have to Do Everything
Being careful to keep our motives in check Paul counter argues, “the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you” (v21). We may tend to feel as if we offer nothing, or we may tend to feel as if the body fully depends on one person or another (maybe even ourselves). This is not an accurate picture of the Church. The Church is about cooperation, not competition; interdependence not independence; unity and diversity not unity or diversity. Plug in and know we already worship a Savior, and it’s not you, and that’s okay.
You Are Not Alone
Paul states, “if one member suffers all suffer together; if one is honored all rejoice together” (v26). We are whole beings. Our spiritual health can affect our physical health and our emotional health can affect our relational health. We are interconnected physically and in body-life. What great news! We are all looking for community. We are looking to answer the question: Am I alone? God in His goodness, sovereignty and love gave us each other—the Church. A place to know and be known!
You have something to offer, but don’t worry, you don’t have to do everything. You get to plug in and realize you are not alone. We serve in the body not to get anything, but to give our lives away. But God, like a loving father always ready to give undeserved, meaningful, lasting gifts, allows us to be blessed in the process.
Serving alongside you (and receiving undeserved blessing),
Pastor Ed Boness