Piecemeal lives

This past weekend I had the joy of seeing the Body of Christ truly in action.
Maybe I’ve been looking in the wrong direction, but this weekend I found it, in a cowboy church in Crosby, Texas.
A body of believers who believed in something far greater than themselves.
A body of believers who realized that their small, sometimes menial tasks were just as important as everyone elses.
It didn’t matter if they were sweeping floors, pouring tea or pushing a button on a sound board -- they were there to serve, and they never questioned how important their role was.
They were there to help a bunch of crazy wrestlers put on a couple shows to share the Gospel. And whatever that took -- they were going to help put on the best show ever.
I can’t think of anything they could have done better. Well, other than maybe give earplugs to my roommates to help drown out my snoring (Sorry about that.)
NOTE FROM CHRIS: You should have heard it -- oh wait you probably did. What meteorologists thought was an approaching thunderstorm was actually Blundell snoring. By the way, Breathe Rights -- worthless.
Scripture reminds us that we’re all an important part of the body, no matter how menial or piecemeal our lives may seem.
“By means of His one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which He has the final say in everything.”
As a ring announcer for the CWF sometimes it’s easy to think, “My job is not really that important. I just talk. Anyone can do that. The wrestlers have the really important jobs.” Or, “You know I’m really the important one here. Without me, no one gets welcomed to the ring. I think I’ll just say whatever I want and introduce people as I see fit.”
But whether other people can or can’t do my job, it’s my job and it’s what I’ve been asked to do. And while I may want to try and steal the limelight, if I’m not working as a member of the team, nothing will get completed -- and I’m sure I’d get a number of vicious chops in the process.
But what if my sound guy gets bored with being a sound guy? What if he wants to be in the ring getting beat down and tossed around like a bag of potatoes?
Suddenly we don’t have sound or entrance music and our ministry becomes a bunch of guys with sore throats from trying to yell over the crowd.
What if a cook in the kitchen decides she wants to prepare Indian cuisine instead of steak and potatoes? While the rest of her team is baking potatoes and grilling steak, she comes along and starts throwing curry and asafoetida or hing all over everything.
The otherwise wonderful, simple meal is suddenly ruined.
The Apostle Paul writes, “If Foot said, ‘I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,’ would that make it so? If Ear said, ‘I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,’ would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell?”
Each person has their own place. And each place is valued just like the rest -- no matter where you are or what you do.
“But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own.”
No matter how independent you think you are or how unimportant you are -- you have value and no one else can take your place.
As we wrapped up our second show in Crosby Sunday night I began talking with a church member who had been working the parking lot detail earlier that evening.
He told me he was proud to be able to play such a “little part” in something much greater than all of this.
As we talked, I remembered times that I’ve been stuck in parking lots with poor direction and communication.
I’ve sat in parking lots for hours as people try to direct traffic back on to the roads.
What seemed menial and trivial to him was a blessing to everyone who attended one of our shows.
No matter what part you might have, where ever you might be, you’ve been placed there for a reason and without each person in place -- the show (or dinner, or ball game, or office, or church service) would never be the same.
Strive for excellence. Work as if everything you do depends solely on you -- because when it all comes down to it -- it does.
“The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part... If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.”