How To Be A Team Player Series

20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 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!"

22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,

The day you figure out that God wants to use YOU, the day you uncover the divine abilities he’s graced your life with could be the beginning of PRIDE for you. For me, it was when I realized, I might be a teacher. I found out I was a hand and I slowly, I took pride in the things I could grasp, the tools I could use. How awesome to be hand. What would the body do without it’s hands?

So I went to Bible college which is where useful hands go, and the first mark in my preaching class was a "D". Ok, not a very well manicured hand, apparently. And then, as I mentioned last week, God led me to areas of service that taught me to think more about the Body and less about being a hand.

I began leading a hospital chaplainry team that visited patients and put on services for them. I was very frustrated – visiting those patients was the hardest thing in the world for me. I mean, here I am, pastor in training. A super class, right? So why was it that whenever I entered a room I would sweat, I’d get nervous and develop rocks in my gut? I would stammer and say something like,

so... you’re sick... I imagine that’s a bummer, huh?

People would look at me like,

Who sent this punk up here?

And then, one day, a new woman came on my team. And I was going to take her up to the patients and you know, show her the ropes! So we get in there and what do I do? Well I default to my gift, teaching. That’s my M.O. when in doubt, teach. Someone comes in for counseling, I teach, I run a staff meeting, I start to teach, my kids ask for bubblegum, I teach.

And hey, you know people who are sick in the hospital and kind of mad at God and tired of answers? Let me give you a hot tip… they love teaching. Oh yeah, lot’s and lot’s of pat answers, can’t get enough of that.

So this is me, right, I’m showing her how it’s done. As I’m fumbling through some disjointed treatise on God’s sovereignty and man’s free will, here’s the newbee and she takes one of the gaps in my monologue and pipes up, “can I just ask a question?” And I go,

“well, I guess if you think you have something to add!”

And I shut up just long enough to observe. And what I observed changed my view of the Body of Christ forever. This humble rookie, drew this patient out with questions, she showered genuine concern and mercy on them. And she shared tears and prayed and read Scripture. She oozed love and care.

And after, I said,

How’d you do that? You were MADE show God’s mercy on hurting people!

Suddenly I had an image of the church. And it was a more biblical one than I had ever had before. It was an image of a body, where every member serves a vital function. I would have been lost without her that day. Superiority kills just as badly as inferiority. Superiority means people without the right gifts are pushing out other people better suited…