What good in the body of Christ is a severed hand?
I realized that I pull away from my brothers and sisters in Christ because I often feel inadequate. I fear I’m going to say something that will make them think I’m weird and not want to be around me anymore. I fear that I’m looked down on as if I’m less than, not equal too. That what I have to say is not as important as what others do. These things have led me to pull away from my amazing squad of Christ followers. I don’t engage in conversations. I don’t join card games. I don’t talk to certain people.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7
As God was showing me this, He also reminded me of the metaphor the body of Christ. If I were to be a hand in this body, and I cut myself off of the body, I couldn’t do anything! Because I’d not only be separating myself from the feet, the arms, the kidney, and the gall bladder, but from the head: Jesus. And if I separate myself from the head, then I can do nothing worthwhile, nothing that will last into eternity. Also, it keeps me from accepting and believing God’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. If we aren’t connected to the vine, then we will shrivel up and die. |John 15:4| We NEED Jesus. And He gives us the gift of other believers to assist and support one another, just as the legs support the hand and the heart makes sure it gets the blood that it needs. And we need to be connected to the body so that we can be connected to the head, where we receive information, wisdom, and life.
One of the reasons we tend to disconnect ourselves from other Christians is because of people who have hurt us in the past. I can remember times throughout the last year where memories of being hurt by people have popped into my head, and I’ve recognized how they have affected me. But even though I recognized their effects, I failed to recognize that I needed healing from it. When you get wounded, you need to clean the wound and mend it. And that is exactly where I stand now. Feeling so much freedom and lightness, thank you Jesus!, and excited to remove the veils and filters that these past experiences have placed over my eyes, that now affect how I see my brothers and sisters.
Disclaimer: I wrote these next thoughts a few days ago before completely walking through forgiveness for some people. I encourage you, if you have similar thoughts and feelings, ask God how He sees the people who have hurt you. They also went through things and encountered people that affected how they felt and acted. Seeing a glimpse of these people through the eyes of God, who loves the world so much, allowed me and will continue to allow me to have empathy, compassion, and love for them.
When I can heal from and forgive someone for making me feel inferior because of their words, I can remove that veil from my eyes, and see my squad mates as the loving, kind, and valuing people that they are and are being made to be. When I heal from and forgive someone for making me question my worth, I can remove that filter from my eyes and see my spiritual siblings as the beautiful, sincere, and cherishing children of God they are. It puts our hope and faith in Jesus Christ, keeps us from relying solely on people (because EVERYONE makes mistakes, myself 100% included), and allows us to extend the grace of Christ to those who have hurt us. What a beautiful, freeing, concept!!!!! I could put a million exclamation points!!!! Jesus is SO STINKING GOOD!!!!!! WOW. Praise God for freedom.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. 1 John 5:1
Dear friends and family,
I currently have one month left in Ethiopia and just began month 6 out of 9 on my race. Oh how time flies. This place is full of beautiful sunsets, cool air, brilliant stars, adorable kids, great friends, and the Spirit of God. Thank you for reading about and supporting me on this journey!
Praise Reports:
- God is moving here! He has healed people, especially on my squad, physically and emotionally. My teammate Elena (find her blogs on the left side of this page) was healed from her gluten intolerance, someone else’s spine was straightened, others were healed from common sickness, etc.
- The deadline for being fully funded was January 15th. One of my squadmates needed $4000 and she got an anonymous donation of $4000! (If you’d like to support the rest of my squadmates who are still fundraising, you can go to www.worldrace.org, click on the tab that says find a racer, then click on find a squad, and click on Gap S. This should give you a list of all of my squadmates. You can donate to them through this.)
- We went to midpoint debrief about 2 weeks ago, and when we returned to our ministry site, we returned without our leadership, who got to take a week-long vacation. We were mostly on our own, with only our ministry hosts and an emergency number to call if needed. We experienced so much unity in our squad, and so many people stepped up to lead in the ways they felt led, and God moved a lot!
Prayer Requests:
- Putting apathy to death! Pray for motivation to make the most out of the time we have left in Ethiopia and on the race.
- For continued freedom, healing, and a deep understanding of God’s love to envelop my squad!
- For the racers whose parents are coming on the Parent Vision Trip (where parents can join racers on the mission field for a week) and for those parents.
- For deeper love and stronger bonds among my squad.
- For my squadmates who are still fundraising.
Thank you so much for reading!!!
-Kirsten
