Wednesday, January 23, 2008

What’s YOUR favorite body part?

(No, I didn’t say "favorite part of your body")
We just had TWO sermons on Unity and Community. Last week, a new staff member preached from the Psalms, and I loved her description of the shining beauty of the oil that covered the high priest from HEAD TO TOE[note double foreshadowing, you literary types]
This week was the familiar Pauline passage on the unity and necessity of the diverse body: No part is less important than any other.
So, what about the Head? Seems everyone wants to be the Head, but that job is taken by the One Slain from the Foundation of the World. So even though I must take up my own cross, that doesn’t make me "The Brain"
How about Heart—warm, vital, life giving? A nice thought, but no, not really.
Eye? A little closer—I see things many don’t see, and I often see things differently.
How about………….
A Toenail! I’m a little rough around the edges, and sadly, I accumulate a lot of odd-looking stuff that others think is junk. (In fact, some of it is)
WHERE IS THIS GUY’S SELF IMAGE? Please, don’t give up on me yet; I didn’t say I was a hangnail. That doesn’t count as a body part since, technically, I think only a tiny part of a hangnail is even alive. They are mostly dead tissue attached to living tissue with VERY functional nerve endings. And, yes, as necessary as toenails are, I don’t think most of the nail is "alive," either. The best part of me is what’s beneath the surface, and behind the visible part! All you see of me is what’s been pushed out from under the skin! And, far from having a low self image, consider this about me: when The Body is walking at a normal pace, not leaning or swinging the arms, what part crosses the finish line first??
You might even, gasp, call me a Leader! But please don’t.