(from January 2004)
Had kind of a funny story to share.
I
was moving my son's room around, and long story short I dropped a metal
bed frame and mattress on my toe. It was the worst pain I've felt in a
long time. Actually thought I was going to throw up, I crushed it
pretty good. (It scared my daughter really bad. She told me later that
she's never seen me cry when I was hurt :-)
Anyway,
as I was holding my foot, tears pouring, the only thought in my head
was "...when the toe is hurt, the entire body suffers..." Now why I
would think such a thought when I was in so much pain that I couldn't
tell you who was in the room or what day it was, I don't know. So
later, I kind of wondered if the Lord was saying something (not that He
caused it, but He manages to use every situation in my life as a
learning lesson :-)
We
bandaged my foot and rushed off to church for worship/video-production
practice, so I didn't have alot of time to think more about it that
night. But I have spent the past two days with those words ringing in
my thoughts. Today I woke up at 3:00am still thinking about them. I felt that I had lived them :-)
My
toe was purple and gashed and swollen, but it wasn't the one pounding
the mattress, or screaming and crying, or shaking itself. To be the
one hurt, it was rather calm :-)
But
the rest of my body responded with great emotion and concern. My whole
body screamed in pain. I hurt all over, even the hairs on my head I
think.
I
thought about all this before the Lord this afternoon, and realized how
true those words are -- especially when you apply them to the Church as
a body. If the church is operating scripturally as God intended, all
of us should hurt when a toe is wounded (even if it's not the big one
or the tiny one). You know, even if it's the most insignificant one,
like the fourth one or something :-)
Two things crossed my mind:
1)
If you think about it, sin is sickness. So sometimes that wounded toe
in the body is someone that is in sin. That person may have inflicted
that wound upon themselves by living a life of gossip or lies or
something. And that person is walking around sick and crushed and
wounded, causing the entire body to experience pain. In such a case,
the body should respond. Before resorting to chopping off that toe, we
need to offer healing by cleansing and bandaging that wound. Too
often we're quick to just cut people off. (Though... the toe must be
willing to yeild to change and ministry and transformation... it must
be willing to participate in the healing process by trusting and
setting down it's defenses. Healing requires courage from those
ministering as well as from those recieving ministry).
2)
And that was my second thought. Over the days that followed I had to
gather the medical supplies and apply the medicine. My hands had to
change the bloody bandages time and time again to keep it clean and
ensure healing. What a picture of the church as a body, as a family,
as people who love and care and need one another. (The healing of some
members in the body is not a quick fix). But their pain remains our
pain, their sickness our sickness, their sin our sin (just as Christ
took our sins upon Himself). We are to be like Him, we are to bear the
burdens of others. Though it seems difficult at times, we CAN do all
things if we look to Him to strengthen us.
We
find ourselves not wanting to trust again, not wanting to hurt anymore,
not wanting to get our hands dirty, not wanting to take the time, but
we have to, because it's the only way we can ALL get better, the only
way the Body can get better. And as we keep changing those bloody
bandages the pain becomes less and less, and the yuck slowly goes away,
and God brings total and complete healing.
And soon we are able to walk and run and dance again, and we've completely forgotten that that bed ever fell :-)
One last thought:
I
was thinking about the woman caught in adultery, and Jesus' response of
writing in the sand. I've heard people say that he might have been
writing her accuser's sins in the sand which convicted them.
Along
that thought, perhaps He was writing the Ten Commandments, the Law.
And as those men were reminded of the Law and the fact that each of
them falls short in some area of it, they were convicted.
I
thought it was a good reminder to us as Christians to be careful not to
insist on what we think is fair according to the Law, but rather to
extend mercy in such matters. We have to be careful because if we
insist on judging others according to the Law, we'll be judged by it.
The Mercy Jesus brought to us really is amazing.
I'm so thankful for it because I continually find myself falling short and needing Him.
Amanda :-)
