The other night in Teakwondo class, I was practicing with a fellow student. We each took turns kicking a handheld target.
As I held the target for him, counting each kick off, I said, "Ok, last one, kick it hard!"
Famous last words.
He kicked it pretty hard, but instead of hitting the target, he hit my hand.
Namely, the thumb on my left hand. It still hurts.
What's interesting is, I have never really given much thought to this thumb, especially since it I am right-handed. However, now that pain is involved, I am aware of just how much I count on this appendage, going about my day.
Reading 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (NIV)
"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. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."
Live the Christian life long enough and you will see parts of the body injured and some that simply fall to the wayside. Even as I write this, names and faces come to mind. People I have known who were on fire for Christ, but are now gone.
Perhaps we did not treat them as members of our body in the way we should have?
Perhaps we don't realize that we are not a complete body without them?
Interestingly enough, my thumb looks normal on the outside. You really can't tell there is anything wrong. It isn't until I need it that I realize it is injured.
The only way we can see these injured members is to ask the Lord to be made aware of them, and then be prepared to do what we can to make them strong again.
