Finding Your Own Way

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. - 1 Corinthians 12:12-14

As Erna Kim Hackett pointed out on Sunday, we all have different ways of approaching God. Sure, we are all followers of Christ and the same Holy Spirit lives in us all. But we’re as different as parts of the body. A nose and an elbow function very differently, and the same is true when it comes to your spiritual practices.

Interestingly, when Paul is talking about the body of Christ in this passage, he specifically mentions both cultural differences (Jewish and Greek) and class differences (servants and citizens). So there’s plenty of difference still - that is not wiped out in the church. Churches are inherently diverse, even in the ones that pressure people to look the same!

Take a moment and ponder how you and someone else who comes to mind follow Jesus differently. Don’t look for anything wrong with either of you. Just practice noticing the differences. Are you or they more expressive in worship? Read the Bible more? Like silent prayer more? Meet God in nature more? Serve the needs of others more?

Take time and give thanks for this other person and their spirituality. Then give thanks for your own.