What is Not the Foot’s Job?

In the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians we are told that all believers are members of one body, Christ. It is further explained that, just as a physical body has many different parts each performing their own function, so too the Body of Christ consists of many people each with different gifts. No person need seek to copy or envy another because of that other person’s gifts – any more than the hand need envy the foot or the eye. Each person has their gifts which, when exercised, benefit the whole body.

It occurred to me today that there is more to this than an admonition to do what God has given us, to be content and to not envy or attempt to be just like those around us. When a person needs to walk, his feet are called upon to fulfill their function. Walking is what they are made for and when movement from one place to another is required, the feet are fully engaged in the process. However, when that same person is called upon to write a paper, the feet are not needed. The feet can and should rest. It is completely useless for the feet to be concerned about how well the paper is being written. That is the purview of the brain and the hands. The feet cannot positively impact the quality of the writing one iota. It would be silly for them to think they can. If anything, they can only hinder the process if, by failing to rest and be quiet, they create a distraction for the brain.

I need to learn that, when there is something in my life that is beyond my control, it is not my job to worry about it. To do so would be as silly as if my feet were concerned about how to write this post. My worry can only hinder the process that Christ, the head of the Body, has under control.

As God says elsewhere, I need only be still.

Explaining It Away

I had dinner in Disney World a few nights ago. For those of you who know me, your first reaction is probably, “Wow! That's pretty cool. How unusual!” After all, I have a full-time job, four kids and I live in New York. Quick hops down to the Magic Kingdom are definitely out of the ordinary for me.

If you're like me, your second reaction follows pretty closely on the heels of the first: “How did that happen? In other words, tell me the sequence of explainable events that resulted in your trip to Florida.”

But maybe instead we should try to remember – and even maintain – the amazement and wonder that we feel that first nanosecond after hearing some great news. Refuse to take a step back. Because no matter the explanation, it is an amazing thing God did, taking me out of the same ol', same ol' and plunking me down in a restaurant in Orlando (where the food was incredible).

I think we have a tendency to water down the awesome works of God. We hear that He parted the Red Sea – and then we seek to explain it in terms we are familiar with: they crossed at a very shallow point during the dry season, a wind lowered the water level sufficiently to expose an underwater ridge, etc. And if we can't fit a rational explanation to His miracles, we discount them as mere stories or metaphors.

Why not take the handiwork of God at face value? Does it really matter how He orchestrated my trip? The fact remains that He did. God chose something well outside of my experience and even outside my imagination and decided to bless me with it. He did it because He loves me and knew I would really enjoy His gift.

And that's all I need to know.

God’s Recipe

I was making chocolate chip cookies the other day and the recipe called for an egg. How strange and wonderful, I thought, that a concoction of basically flour and sugar requires an egg. A chicken egg. How weird and unconnected is that? I mean, what does the egg of a chicken have to do with sweets, chocolate and finely ground wheat? If I was designing the world and if something as purely enjoyable as cookies even crossed my mind, would I have thought to make chickens so as to ensure the quality of those cookies? I doubt it.

But God did. And He works far stranger and seemingly disconnected things together with us in mind. That’s us. As in you and me. He was thinking of you when He put the stars in the heavens and placed the moon in orbit. You were uppermost on His mind when flowers were invented, birds were taught to sing and the mountains were topped off with snow. He even made you the centerpiece of His sweep of History as He set the times and places for kings and emperors, inventions and discoveries, poems and songs.

And when things seem are tough, tragic and desperate, remember that the One who long ago made a chicken so you could enjoy chocolate chip cookies is the One who holds you in the palm of His hand, who is not surprised, perplexed or at a loss at a turn of events, who has only your very best in mind and who sees fit to order the entire universe for that purpose.