Clay in the Hands

I am thinking today about what it means to be a Christian.  Not so much a definition of being a Christ follower, but rather, what does that look like?  How should I live?  How do fellow Christ followers relate to one another.

I am overwhelmed with the idea that being a Christian carries with it an inherent idea that we do this together – in community.  God designed us that way – to need one another.  The apostle Paul used the illustration of a human body with all the descriptions such as an eye not being more important than the foot, etc.  All parts are good and more importantly, necessary. 

As I think about this, Paul was not trying to make everyone feel important.  He was stressing the importance of the obligation that each of us has as a self-professed follower of Christ.  The body will be dysfunctional (handicapped or challenged if you will) if I withhold my gifts, my being, from the community.  The body will not be able to function as it should if we do not each truly “plug-in.”

That is a huge truth we all need to remember.  God called you – yes you!  God called you to be a part of the local body, the church.  Are you hurting the body – God’s Kingdom – by failing to truly engage as you are gifted to do?

Think about what God could do in our community if all followers were engaged at the same time fulfilling what God called them to do!  Now that’s a body I want to be part of – and so will everyone else!