You Don't Have To Be A Star

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.


Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body.


The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”  On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,  and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,  while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it,  so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
1 Corinthians 12:12-26

Every part of the body of Christ is essential.  My own body provides an excellent example.  Because of a tiny error in my genetic code, my body manufacturers an incomplete version of a crucial protein.  In essence, there is a part of my body missing.  My genetic code makes up an infinitesimally small fraction of my body and yet because of this seemingly insignificant missing part, my entire body has severely limited capabilities.

If every Christian on Earth is a part of the body of Christ, a single individual could be considered equivalent to a bit of missing genetic code.  In other words, a single individual could make the difference between a healthy church and one that is as spiritually disabled as my body is physically.

Perhaps you find yourself feeling as if you don't belong.  Perhaps you feel that your place in the church is insignificant and that no one would notice if you participated or not.  Let me assure you, this is absolutely not the case.  God alone has arranged the parts of the body, with their individual functions, so that as a whole, they make a healthy, functioning human.  In the same manner, He has granted each of us different abilities that make each of us essential to His purpose.

No matter how untalented or useless you may believe you are, God has designed and placed you according to His plans.  I pray that each person reading these words will find their purpose in life.  I pray this particularly for myself.