Talked last night with a new friend about almost everything two people can talk about. At some point, I asked her, “If the church is a body like Paul says in Romans, which part are you?”
She hesitated and then said her passion was photography, that she’d love to find a way to serve God and His body as a photographer. We then spent a little while brainstorming what that might look like. She described a plan she’d had to take people’s pictures for a donation to the work in Haiti. I mentioned the possibility of communicating truth to a congregation through an exhibit of portraits—maybe pics of new converts or widows and orphans or our brothers and sisters in mission fields.
I liked her answer—photography. While some people might see their picture-taking gift as a secular one, she’s realized that God gives gifts so we can give them back to Him. God made her a photographer—Does that mean she’s an eye?
I got to thinking today about what part I am and about how important figuring out our part can be. It empowers us to give back to God in exactly the way He created us to give. It allows us to flourish in kingdom work instead of striving to be who we’re not.
I think of the few times I signed up to make the communion bread at my home church. Good Christian women baked communion bread. I, on the other hand, forgot it the first two Sundays in my month and burned it the third. By the fourth another woman had graciously relieved me.
I am not a communion bread baker.
I am a teacher.
Because I’ve figured that out, the congregation gets edible bread every Sunday morning (prepared by a reliable, responsible baker) and I feel fulfilled in my service to God, knowing that I’m making the body better—even making me better—as I live the part God wrote for me.
Today, ask yourself: What would the church be missing if it didn’t have a me?
Figure out what you’re good at, and put it to work for God.