There’s an old story about how all the different parts of the body were arguing about which one of them should be the leader. The brain started out and said, “Well, all the thoughts, all the ideas for what we do come from me, so clearly I should be the leader.” The heart said, “Yeah, but I’m the one who gives us all our emotions, all our feelings. All of our good motivations come from me, so I should be the leader.” The eyes said, “Well, but I’m the one who provides the vision, who makes sure we know where we’re going, so I should be the leader.” And one by one, all the various parts of the body made their arguments why they should be the leader. Finally, the neck started to say why it should be the leader, but before it could even get started, all the other body parts started making fun of it. They said, “You, the leader? What good are you? All you do is hold the head up. Why in the world would we make you the leader?”
Well, the neck got really mad at that, so it tightened all its muscles and constricted all its blood vessels, and pretty soon the brain began to feel a pounding, and the heart was having to work a lot harder to pump blood, and everything in the body was feeling really bad. And so all the body parts said to the neck, “Okay, okay, you can be the leader.”
The moral of this story is that being a leader doesn’t really require brains or heart or vision. Sometimes all you have to do to be a leader is to be a pain in the neck.
Both this story and our scripture today illustrate how we all have different parts to play in life. The role we play differs at different times and in different situations, but no matter what the time or situation is, we always have some part to play. Sometimes it may be a big part, and sometimes it may be a small part, but we always have a part. And sometimes, what seems to us to be the smallest, least important part can turn out to be the most important part of all.
There are some of you whom I’ve gotten to know fairly well, and others of you whom I’m just starting to get to know. But I know that all of us have done a lot of things in our lives. There have been times when we’ve done big, important things that have gotten us a lot of attention. There are other times when we’ve done smaller things that have been a part of something much bigger. And there are other times when we’ve just gone about the business of living our lives, not really even thinking about what we’re doing or how it might fit into the larger scheme of things.
The longer I live, and the more I think about it, I think those are the times that matter the most: the times when we just go about the business of living our lives. You know, there’s an old saying that it’s much better to see a sermon than to hear one. I think that’s true. I think the times when we’re not trying to persuade anyone, not trying to influence anyone, but are simply living our lives, doing the best we can to be good people, doing the best we can to be God’s people, doing the best we can to show love to our neighbors—those are the times when we can have the most impact on other people.
When we do something for someone with no thought of what we might get in return; when we treat people with respect and compassion; when we’re honest with people; when we treat people with kindness—those are the things that have the most impact. Because those are the things that show people that we really mean what we say, that there really is something about following Jesus that’s making a difference in our lives. And when people see that following Jesus makes a difference in our lives, they’re much more likely to want Jesus to make that same difference in their lives.
We can have that kind of influence at any time of our lives. And that includes when you come to live in a place like this. I know this has to have been a hard transition for some of you. The part you have to play has changed, sometimes against your will. You might wish that you could have kept playing the part you were playing before, but that simply was not the way things worked out.
Instead, you have a different part to play. Maybe it seems like it’s a smaller part. Maybe it seems like it’s a part that really is not very important. Maybe it seems like it’s a part that really does not matter at all.
But it does matter. That’s what our scripture is telling us. All the parts are important. What seem like the smaller parts are just as important as what seem like the bigger parts. It takes all of the parts for the body to function. God arranged all the parts to work together. Each one of those parts is necessary for God’s plan.
Each one of you is far more important than you might imagine. Whether you realize it or not, you are important. You make an impact on people every day, just by the way you live your lives. Each one of you is an important part of the body. Each one of you is an important part of God’s plan. And each one of you is very important to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment