Last Sunday we attended a Church service at Eastgate where Nevil (the pastor) thoroughly went over what it meant to be a part of the body a.k.a. the church. As you are probably already guessing he dissected and analyzed 1 Corinthians 12 as well as other various verses. This is a sermon I have heard several times before, but that doesn’t negate its value. It’s always a great reminder of the importance of our God given role in the Church. Just like the church, the body can’t move the way it’s designed to if the feet are hindered. Or if the shoulder is hurt, then it prevents the arm from its full potential. Every joint, bone, ligament, and muscle importance and every single one has its role to play for the body to operate like it was originally designed.
The part of this sermon that’s so great is that it reminds us even if you are given the role of the big toe you still have a crucial importance to the body. Let me be the first to tell you it sucks if you can’t use your big toe. Prior to hearing this sermon, I was fairly confident I had broken my toe playing soccer on Friday. Perfect- It’s month one and I’m already down and out. I truly didn’t realize how much a broken big toe could hinder walking. I couldn’t play soccer or participate in sports ministry which was my main form of ministry. I’ll be honest, I was pretty bummed, yet I had faith that God had His reasons.
For the next two days, I was hobbling around trying to maintain normal life. I could start to feel the other parts of my foot start to get sore from the unnatural walking pattern, yet they never gave out so that my big toe could rest and begin to heal. What a beautiful comparison of how the church should react. If your neighbor is in pain, don’t abandon them nor try to force them to mask it so that the rest of the church doesn’t have to bare the weight of their issues. You wouldn’t (shouldn’t) try to play basketball with a torn rotator cuff or run around on a torn ACL. If you do, you it can lead to greater destruction of the body. Yes, some areas of the church may get a little sore from having to do a little extra work for the hurt and healing, but it is necessary. If not, the healing process just takes longer or it may never return to its proper function.
Back at the Church where we’re staying I had several people come to my aid whether that was through physically helping me or praying over my toe. I’m incredibly thankful for this community and how they carry out how the body of the church is designed to function.
To give you an update on my toe it has been 6 days and I’m pretty much back to fully functional. I’m not sure if it was ever truly broken but it definitely looked like it. My toe was almost completely purple/bruised and swollen, but now it almost back to normal size with some slight discoloration. I kid you not, the power of prayer is so strong. I’ve had several people pray over it for healing and that’s the only explanation as to why I’ve recovered so fast.
Don’t freak out mom, I’m good.
