May 2011
If you have not heard AJ, Mindi, and I will be closing on a house on North 10th Avenue during this month of May. We are excited to own a home in our community. It has been over a year since I had a yard to play in as well as mow, and I look forward to both (of course the former most of all). We already feel at home here, and this is the obvious next step.
The two things I like about packing (if there I have to admit two things) are cleaning out things I do not need, and going through the meaningful memories. The cleaning out the old stuff and the things one does not need any more feels great. However, I find even more joy by finding treasures during a move that remind me of different periods of my life and seeing how they connect to the current move.
Of course moving from one home to another forces this process, but it is a good idea to do this process for our home now, and even more importantly with our own selves. What we discover is that we have varying gifts because of our experience and God-given talents. Thus we think of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12: 12-17:
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body.
Paul goes on and tells us that “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” Through prayer and careful self-reflection we can find where our skills, talents, and gifts fit for the Body of Christ, not simply at First Christian Church, but in our entire lives as the ministry of Jesus Christ. It is not limited to our congregation, but is how we live our lives everywhere: church, work, the library, the fields, malls, on the road, and of course at home.
So as you participate in your own spring-cleaning and clearing, remember the gifts you have been given and the experiences that have shaped your gifts for the work of Christ in the world. As we continue the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, let us use our gifts in new ways for the building of Christ’s Kingdom.
Blessings,
Pastor JC
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