"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ..." Ephesians 4:11
Over my last couple of posts, I've been writing about how God doesn't create people equally, at least in the respect that we all have the same gifts, same talents, and same aptitudes in this world. For the most part, we really do get this. We understand that some people are born with great athletic talent, others with great intellectual talent, others with great social talent, still others with great leadership talent, and so forth. Often, we find ourselves wishing that we could have some of those talents that we see in others.
During our lives in this world, we face an interesting situation. We desperately want to fit in with others, and yet, we also want to be unique. I have seen these competing desires play themselves out in many different ways in the lives of people. (As a side note, we don't outgrow this as we grow up. We might think it's a teenage thing, but it really does still touch us all.) As people, we struggle to be unique, and yet to fit in with others.
The thing is, as God would design it, we can actually celebrate both our uniqueness and how we are designed to fit in with each other. It's actually not about looking the same, or having the same gifts, talents, and abilities. It's much more about discovering how we "fit together" as God's people. And that's where the verse quoted above actually sheds a lot of light on this for us.
God gave different people different gifts, talents, and roles. St. Paul realized that, and wrote about how those are all to work together to build up the body. They aren't to each argue that they are more important than the others. They aren't to be held up as one being greater than another. Rather, they are meant to be complementary. In fact, I would even be so bold as to suggest that, if one of these is missing, then the body is suffering from a lack.
God created us to interact with each other in our uniqueness. But the thrilling thing to discover is that God fits us together, much in the same way a puzzle fits together. God provides the pieces, and no two look alike. Yet, they are all needed for the picture to look correct.
What do we take away from this? God created you different from others, but He did so with the intent that you interact with others to build up the body of Christ. You are a necessary part of it, just as are the other members and parts. Each is to be celebrated, embraced, and interacted with.
Over my last couple of posts, I've been writing about how God doesn't create people equally, at least in the respect that we all have the same gifts, same talents, and same aptitudes in this world. For the most part, we really do get this. We understand that some people are born with great athletic talent, others with great intellectual talent, others with great social talent, still others with great leadership talent, and so forth. Often, we find ourselves wishing that we could have some of those talents that we see in others.
During our lives in this world, we face an interesting situation. We desperately want to fit in with others, and yet, we also want to be unique. I have seen these competing desires play themselves out in many different ways in the lives of people. (As a side note, we don't outgrow this as we grow up. We might think it's a teenage thing, but it really does still touch us all.) As people, we struggle to be unique, and yet to fit in with others.
The thing is, as God would design it, we can actually celebrate both our uniqueness and how we are designed to fit in with each other. It's actually not about looking the same, or having the same gifts, talents, and abilities. It's much more about discovering how we "fit together" as God's people. And that's where the verse quoted above actually sheds a lot of light on this for us.
God gave different people different gifts, talents, and roles. St. Paul realized that, and wrote about how those are all to work together to build up the body. They aren't to each argue that they are more important than the others. They aren't to be held up as one being greater than another. Rather, they are meant to be complementary. In fact, I would even be so bold as to suggest that, if one of these is missing, then the body is suffering from a lack.
God created us to interact with each other in our uniqueness. But the thrilling thing to discover is that God fits us together, much in the same way a puzzle fits together. God provides the pieces, and no two look alike. Yet, they are all needed for the picture to look correct.
What do we take away from this? God created you different from others, but He did so with the intent that you interact with others to build up the body of Christ. You are a necessary part of it, just as are the other members and parts. Each is to be celebrated, embraced, and interacted with.
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