November 26
November 26
Your walk with God is a total-body project.
I was in the hospital because I thought I had a severe urinary infection, but as the days passed, it became clear that something even more serious was wrong inside of me. The urinary issues had permanently damaged my kidneys, and I was in acute renal failure. I later learned that I had lost about 65 percent of my kidney function. I was shocked and confused as to what this meant for my life going forward, but there was more shock to come. When one major organ is damaged, it negatively affects other systems in your body. I didn’t just have kidney problems; I had other physical problems because of the kidney problems.
God did not design the systems and members of our body to function independently. Our bodies have a systemic cooperation and interdependency, which means that if one part of the body is damaged, other parts are affected as well. This interdependency means that no organ can function on its own. Every system works well only when it is working in concert with the other systems in the body. The human body is a marvel of divine design. So is the body of Christ:
The body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. (1 Cor. 12:14–20)
Just as God carefully designed the systems of the human body to be interdependent, so he designed the body of Christ—the church—to be an interdependent organism. You have been placed right where God wants you, and you need the gifts and graces of the people whom God has placed around you. There is no such thing as independent, isolated, self-sufficient, Jesus-and-me Christianity. Independent Christianity is a delusion and a rejection of God’s loving and wise design. Your walk with God is a total-body project.
Do you see yourself as part of an interdependent organism? Who knows you? Who knows your spiritual weaknesses and struggles? Whom have you invited to speak into your life? Are you submitting to God’s design, or are you trying to make it on your own?