Romans 12 -- Susan Watkins

(Reflection on Outside Reading)

It made me really excited to see Stephanie posting on this same passage-- I have been reading and reflecting on it for a few days now and it is something dear to my heart. I will quote a bit larger portion than she did:

"4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. 9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."

(Romans 12:4-9, NIV)


It's easy for me to locate and label all the things I do wrong in relationships. It's easy for me to see when I'm too much to handle or not good enough to pay attention to. It's easy for me to tear myself down because I'm "not like" others whom I like and respect. I constantly feel out of place. I constantly feel like I don't belong. I'm constantly worrying about what I say and how I act and thinking that there's no way people could actually want to hang out with me.

This state of mind is nonsense.

However, the problem runs deep in my heart and it's useless for me to try to reason it away. When I try to attack the point of view with reason, what I start to find is not that I am in fact funny and pretty and great to be around, but that all my fears are TRUE! Reason just ends up digging the hole deeper and piling some dirt in there on top of me. That's because the problem is not with my thoughts about myself, but my perspective on the body of Christ.

My perspective starts off with the false assumption that all Christians should look the same. It's a strange confession to say that I don't suffer from this insecurity at all around non-Christian friends, but that it is a phobia when I'm with my brothers and sisters in Christ. This is not because they are somehow deficient in loving or caring... quite the opposite. It is because somewhere in me there lives this lie that I am supposed to be exactly like them all the time.

And it is a lie. The scripture points it out right there in that passage I quoted. In another similar passage, 1 Corinthians 12, the metaphor of the Body comes in:

"16 And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body." (NIV)

I am a unique and important part of the body, and the fact that I do not look and act like those around me is a strength and a sign of health.

Isn't this true of any group of people who live or work together? If we were all the same, the world would not function well at all. We would never get anything done, paralyzed by our own lack of interest. No new ideas, no creativity, no diversity. But when we come together in those differences, we find drive and purpose and adventure and meaning. As it is, there are many parts, but one body.