After living too long on my dancer--as in ballerina and the like, not exotic--body from high school without any regular routine and having three babies my body was, shall I say, different than it once had been. I was unmotivated to do anything alone at home and when a friend started boot camp classes two afternoons a week, the same two days my husband just happened to be working from home each week, he encouraged me to go. That hour of driving in a car alone, working out with someone who planned everything and told me what to do, and then driving back alone fulfilled a need in me I didn't really understand I had. Fast forward to that same friend opening a box with her husband and me not wanting to give up those two hours a week, I became a Crossfitter.
I could go on and on about the improvements that have occurred from muscle tone to confidence to the unique and diverse individuals I have become friends with, a group that you'd be hard-pressed to accumulate in many other realms. Recently, another thing I have begun to learn is my weaknesses. Understanding your weaknesses just reveals things you need to improve on, but as some appear, one thing has become clear, parts of my body just do not work the same way others' do. At times it has been discouraging, as I am tempted to get upset as another easily picks up a new skill while my arms just can't figure out how to push my body up. Well, God blessed me with monkey length arms--no really, my sister also understands this pain--and those extra inches provide a whole other level of difficulty. Will I ever be able to do it, probably, will it ever be as easy, no. And you know what, that's ok.
Right now all over the world, hundreds of thousands of people are involved in something known as The Open. (Stay with me here, the Crossfit comparison is almost over!) Five weeks long, with a different workout announced each week, we push ourselves and cheer each other on as we accomplish whatever has been set before us. At our gym we have an in-house competition in teams. God bless a team, because not only do you have people who you know are rooting for you, but being different people, we possess different skills, and others are able to pick up your slack as you pick up theirs. It is in this, that I am reminded of the Body of Christ.
This has been a topic that has been on my mind for months. What is the body of Christ? What does it truly look like? Are we, as Christians, fulfilling it's design here on this earth?
Christ is all things. In Colossians 1 we read that, "for by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." He was sent to dwell on this earth because he is all things and because we are not, and can't ever be.
We in our finite beings, were created for community, created to work together, to pick up where another leaves off and to accomplish tasks another was not created to accomplish. Romans 12:4 states that, "For just as each of us has one body with many members, these members do not all have the same function." It is all of us that collectively make up what our one individual Savior was able to do. For a more in-depth look check this out.
Conforming is exactly what we are warned again, but exactly what we long to do. Let me look like everyone else. Let me act like everyone else. Let me attain what everyone else has attained. We have a goal person we want to emulate and most of our time and money and mental capacity is spent achieving it. We judge ourselves by what others are good at instead of looking at our own gifts and using them to their full ability.
Remember that interview with Sally Lloyd Jones? She said, "We on our own have a hierarchy of what is worthy and what isn't. God does not have that. He sees each of us as what He created us to be and if we are filling that role it is beautiful and helps bring order to the chaos which is this fallen world."
Not only do we try to conform in how we act and look, but also in working in our passions. Recently, in a family conversation, we were discussing a hot topic, my husband's family LIVES to discuss 'hot topics.' Another brought up suddenly that we shouldn't be talking about *this, we should instead be talking about *that. But the thing is, there will never be just one issue with which the world is struggling. No matter what is getting media attention, there are hundreds of other things that also need attention, need money, need support, need PEOPLE passionate about them and working to make them nonexistent.
Howard Thurman wrote, "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
The world needs us in everything, so where are you going to come alive?
There is a statistic that is repeatedly stated in the Foster Care Community is, "If 1 family in every 3 churches adopted a child from the US foster care system then every child would be in a family."
I can't help but think that would result in the same thing for other issues as well. All families are not called to foster or adopt, but they are called to something, passionate about something. What if 1 family in every 3 churches became involved in housing the homeless? Or 1 family in every 3 churches came alongside young pregnant mothers? Or 1 in every 3 families supported a refugee family trying to assimilate in this strange new part of the world? Or walked beside boys who searched out a family atmosphere in a gang related way? Or became passionate about supporting their local public school? Or, or, or...
It is not enough to be a believer who only hears, James tells us we have to DO something as well. Your actions don't produce salvation, but your salvation should produce action.
We are the beautiful body of Christ, individual of one another, but working together to do His work.
My oldest wants to pursue a career in engineering and my middle wants to become a sports star. They can dream however they want, they can pursue whatever they wish, my only prayer for them is the same prayer I have for you. Find what you are passionate about and be the Body of Christ within it. Please pray the same for me.
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