The Sum of My Parts

God works in mysterious ways. I've given up trying to understand how and have come to accept this as fact, He is mysterious, I will never fully understand reasons why He does something, but He has a plan. Good enough for me, because I'm human and make mistakes, I'm glad I'm not in charge...I would mess everything up.

This morning, in Church, I'm pretty sure one of the Bible passages read aloud was a very clear message to me. A very clear message followed by raised eyebrows and a stern look. As if God was saying...STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!!! I'm just going to put the entire passage here, because I think it is so important for everyone to read and know and understand.

1 Corinthians 12:14-26

"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be 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 cease to be 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 arranged 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...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."

Wow.

How many of us can say that we struggle with self image issues? I'll be the first to raise my hand. We all do it, let's be honest. How many times have you looked in the mirror and hated the reflection staring back at you? Maybe you decided you are ugly, fat, stupid, going nowhere in life, whatever it is you struggle with, but you decided it. Well, it's wrong. Because the Bible clearly states here..ALL the parts are important and necessary, and beautiful and should be honored. He made us in His image, and everything is as it should be with our bodies. Nothing is out of place, nothing is wrong or ugly. We should be loving every single inch of our bodies. We should never be ashamed or hate anything about ourselves, because our Maker made us special. We are unique, there is no one else in the world exactly like me, and that's beautiful.

What's more? The Bible wasn't only talking about loving ourselves with this passage...he meant the Church. I bet many of you are thinking "Love the Church? You want me to love a building?" No. The Church isn't a building, the Church is a Body. Say what now?? Well, not ONE body. But a body made up of many parts just like our beautiful bodies. The Church is made up, not of bricks, wood, stones, whatever, but the PEOPLE who believe and follow Christ. The Church is made up of the PEOPLE who then take Christ' love and bring it to the world. The PEOPLE who are ministers, teachers, secretaries, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grocery store workers, garbage men/women, police officers, fire fighters, etc, etc. What this passage is saying is that ALL of these people are important, and all of them together make up the Body of Christ. No one part is more or less important. They are equal and necessary. So we should also be loving ALL PEOPLE equally just as we should love ALL the parts of our bodies.

I know. It's easier said than done isn't it? Oh, I'm going to stop the self hate. I'm going to stop judging myself and others. I'm going to be kind to that woman or man that drives me crazy. And then the next day, there you are staring yourself down with judgmental eyes in the mirror, or thinking things about the people walking by that you have no right to. It's the human nature, what can we do?

Oh so much. We can do oh so much. I will tell you what I have started to put into practice. My daily routine of self love. When I see my reflection staring back at me in the mirror and my mind starts disecting every inch of my flesh trying to find flaws and point them out. I close my eyes, take a deep breath and remember one of my favorite Bible verses:

Psalm 139: 13-14
 "For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

Then I open my eyes and force myself to say something nice about myself. It's hard at first, but once you get in the habit of turning the negative around, you'll find you are a happier person. You will find that those negative thoughts don't take over so often. And if I find myself thinking negative thoughts about another person, I stop myself and think "What if that person could hear what I am thinking right now? How would that make them feel? How would that make me feel?" It stops me cold every time.

I hope I have given you some food for thought on this blistery cold Sunday afternoon.