SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

  “At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.” 

― Friedrich Nietzsche

PROVERBS 1-2

8Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction

and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

9They are a garland to grace your head

and a chain to adorn your neck. (1:8-9)

1 CORINTHIANS 12

12Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by^c 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. 14Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

JOURNAL 

It has been fascinating to teach science these past few years. Each year I begin with the fascinating fat of how a human being is composed of an average of 50 trillion cells and that each one of those cells are separate living things that work together to make a human being exist.  Then to juxtapose that to the world that we live in...we see that humanity gets it so wrong. Our selfishness and insistence of getting our way at the consequence of others actually goes directly against our cellular makeup.

That is why I love these verses in 1 Corinthians. They affirm our differences while also calling us to be the best version of ourselves. To be grateful in our personalities and gifts and see them as part of what make the body of the church. In this way differences are beautiful. We don't need to look to each other in view of our weaknesses but rather in view of our talents and strengths. Therefore I also don't need to focus on my failures and weaknesses but rather on my gifts and all the ways God has gifted me to contribute and find my place in his Kingdom.

But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 CORINTHIANS 12:24-27