January 31, 2014

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. - Romans 12:4-5

To put this verse in context with the surrounding passages, Paul says "offer your bodies as a living sacrifice" and "do not think of yourself more highly than you ought" as part of his passages before saying we are to be a member of the body with our function and be a "member belonging to all the others."  He follows this by describing how each of us are to use our spiritual gifts whatever it is, to sincerely love, to be devoted to one another in love, and to honor one another above ourself.

In today's devotional by Tony Dungy, he discusses who the MVPs have been in all the Super Bowls and how there has never been an offensive lineman to get the MVP.  Yet, he points out how futile the effort of any team would be without a stellar offensive line. 

In my own coaching, defense started with defensive tackles.  If I can't plug the middle, I can't force a team to run around the ends.  I had to be able to make a team's plays more predictable.  No one usually notices those tackles, stuck in the middle of the line and very often under a huge pile of lineman on every play.  But they were crucial to the start of the defensive personnel alignment and game plan.

It seems so easy for people in Christian service to get burnt out.  They work and work and work and no one seems to notice or care, or at least they fall into this frame of thinking at times.  And soon, if left to this line of thinking, they slowly back away from service until they aren't serving at all.  Everyone needs encouragement, but even if we're a lineman and we block and block and get hit every play and someone else gets all the glory and never thanks us, we need to stay steady.  We must offer our bodies and not think to highly of ourself and belong to the others as Paul wrote in Romans 12.  Although I write that, I do so knowing how easy it is to feel and fall into that trap.  And when we see the "professional" Christians doing what appears to us to be lackluster jobs, it unfortunately fuels that fire and fall.

There comes a time in your Christian service when you meet that line of thinking head on.  At that time you have to decide and know why you are serving at all.  Is it for the glory?  Jesus warns about that.  Is it for the compliments of man?  Jesus warns about that.  Is it to make your status better in the eyes of God?  Jesus warns about that (it's also incorrect doctrine).  OR, is it because you recognize that the area of service is your gift and you are just contributing to the benefit of the others, even if some criticize you?  Is it because you feel a tug to do it and you don't think you could not do it even though it takes a lot of your time and effort?  You need to know in your heart.

It is also worth mentioning that not every local body of believers is the right body for you to be a part.  Sure, overall, every true believer is a member of the same body, I get that.  But, to use a football analogy, if you're a smash mouth run-up-the-middle type of guy and you're in a spread pass every play offense, you're not gonna be able to use your gifts as well in that offense.  It's important to be in a local body that your gifts fit together with the other parts well and you know confidently that you are a valuable and needed part.