Hands, Feet, and Appendices

When I was nineteen, I went on a two-week mission trip to Haiti. At the time, I felt I had reached the pinnacle of my Christian experience, finally fulfilling the Great Commission and taking up a functioning role in the Body of Christ. There were many fears to be conquered, freedoms to be seized, tragedies to face, and experiences beyond what I could have imagined before. I knew God would need to give me supernatural help to overcome some of the hurdles so I could do what he clearly was calling me to. I learned two of the most important lessons of my life from that trip. The first is that God can and will equip me for his purposes no matter what obstacle I may encounter that I can’t beat alone. The second, is that my calling is not for the mission field.

I’m not saying that I was not called to that trip, as I clearly was. And I’m not saying that the life of a missionary is out of the question for me sometime in the future. But that trip helped me see where in the body I really fit in and what my role actually is. There was a difference in the people in our team for whom the trip was there calling and those of us who were called for a time.

For the majority of my time in the Body, I would say I was quite happily an appendix, pleased to let the other members run things while I floated contentedly by and watched. I think this is how a lot of Christians start out. There is something to be said for the place where one can observe and grow before taking on a functioning role. Though, this becomes a problem when the appendix decides it is content where it is and has no aspirations to find another, more active, task. Or, if they decide they want to be a body-part that is not what they were created to be. I apologize if I am over-extending a metaphor, but it is the best method I have of explaining my point. Many people stay appendices  because they aspire to be something they don’t believe they can accomplish or they won’t give up that dream of being a hand, when they were meant to be an ear. However, the ear can not be a hand, and if it tries on its own, it will fail miserably.

Paul talked about the Body in 1 Corinthians 12 saying that we all have a place in it, and though some of those roles are more obvious or seem to get more credit, the parts that are hidden are equally, if not more, important. We work according to what we are equipped with to do God’s will. We work together, encourage one another, and suffer and rejoice as one.

God equipped me for missions work for a time, but I know things would not have gone over well had I continued to pursue that field without another call to it. I know a lot of people who push themselves into situations where their intentions are to spread God’s word and his name, but they keep falling short. My belief is that this happens because they are either not asking for God’s help in doing their work, or they are not doing what he truly wants for them to do. Mistakes like that can be anything from mildly ineffective to badly misrepresentative of God himself. We have a responsibility to spread the gospel and make disciples, but we also have the responsibility to do it in the way God is leading and not on our own path. But what happens when an appendix doesn’t have another role and a moment comes when a mouth is needed or what happens when an arm knows it’s an arm but comes across a brief opportunity to be a foot? In the situations when I don’t know what God is telling me to do, but there is a chance for me to act, I take a step in one direction and pray that he will shield me from catastrophe.

For some, their role is the full-time mission field, pastoring a church or evangelizing in the street. For some it is more subtle, working behind the scenes in the church, raising and supporting a family of growing warriors for Christ, or simply living every day as an example of Christ’s love and showing him to a broken world. My calling is still a little fuzzy, but I know it includes being dedicated to knowing God to the fullest of my comprehension, and helping believers to be disciples. Sometimes there is a struggle with wanting to be something else or something “more” than what I am, but during the moments when I am sure I am serving God exactly how he created me to serve him, I feel a greater sense of peace and joy than I have found anywhere else. We as Christians have the amazing privilege of knowing we were created for a purpose, and we have opportunity to participate in the work of God Almighty. No matter what your role in the Body is, you have to admit, it’s pretty incredible to be part of it.