Cookie-cutter Christians are a dime-a-dozen.  We are taught by our leaders to be like them,  so we develop into clones of Bishop so-and-so and Apostle So-and-so.  We loose our identity.  And yet God in His infinite wisdom declares the need for everyone of us to function as uniquely as He made us so that the Body can be healthy and whole.

1 Corinthians 12 has been of great help to me when fighting the pressure to conform to the ‘cutter’ presented by my peers.  If I am passionate about children’s ministry, I should have no business manipulating those that are around me into being passionate about children.  Their gifts might be for Prison’s ministry.  That doesn’t mean they are not Christian.  It just means that the area I am strong in is one in which they have little desire for.

Sometimes I am not quite clear where my gifts lie but I know encouragement is one of them.  I can’t help but encourage people.  I see the light at the end of the tunnel (even if I have to acquire telescopic sights).

1 Corinthians 12:4-14

4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.

(NIV)

Why do we want to have a body full of feet?  Why can’t we acknowledge that though the things we are passionate about are biblical and godly, they are only a small part of the bigger picture?  Seek to understand me and appreciate the role I play with my gifts.  If social justice is your thing, do it.  My ‘thing’ is faith.  Don’t drag me into your thing, I don’t want to go.  And yes, I feel nothing.

What do you feel?

Mizizi this past week was about being part of the body of Christ.  The how, why and where to go from there.  I suppose the most profound concept about being a part of God’s family is learning how to serve God by serving people.  I have never had any trouble with that except that I have always restricted serving to Sunday and church.  Now I see that serving others, especially the brethren, outside of Sunday and the church compound calls for a lifestyle commitment to love.  Now it make so much sense why Jesus said what He did in John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, by your love for one another.”  Those that need to see how much Christians love one another and others are probably not there on Sunday.  They are at the office, in the bus, at the restaurant and waiting in line at the bank.

I need to apply this in my life on a person by person basis.  If I look at it too generally, chances are I won’t do anything about it.