When You're an Eyelash in the Body of Christ

Our pastor had just gotten back from Churchwide Assembly on Sunday, and he had unity on the brain.  He preached on both the Gospel and the Romans text.  He talked about us being parts of the body.

Usually when I hear the Romans text preached, I like to think about which Christian body part I am that day.  On Sunday, I felt tired and grumpy for no good reason.  I wanted to be the liver or the kidney of the body of Christ, but I felt more like an eyelash or a fingernail. 

I tried to remind myself that eyelashes and fingernails are important too.

I told myself that I didn't really want to be a vital organ.  If I was the kidney, I'd have a lot of poison to filter.  Yuck.  Who really wants that?

Still, I can't deny that it's hard to live without a kidney, and I lose more eyelashes and fingernails in the course of a month than I can count.

Our pastor's closing comments reigned me back in from my negative self-talk.  I'm intrigued by the idea that I can recognize negative self-talk as it's going on, and sometimes, I can even shorten the negative torrent.  However, will I ever get to the point where I don't indulge in the negative self-talk at all?

After all, throughout our Bible, we see God using human eyelashes and fingernails to do great things.  Granted, God uses humans who are closer to vital organs in the body of the faithful too, but God can use even the tiniest of humans to achieve the goals of the Kingdom.

Our pastor talked about the various disagreements and more serious strife that have affected our Christian community.  He reminded us that our time fighting is time we will never get back.  We simply do not have time to waste in fighting.

We also do not have time to waste in feeling sorry for ourselves because we don't see ourselves as a rock of the church, like Peter.  I might remind us all that Peter wasn't always the vital organ that he would become later.

We all have days when we're the eyelash of the body of Christ, and we can take comfort from knowing that others are on duty as vital organs.  We can take comfort in the fact that when we band together with other eyelashes, we serve an important function too--we keep dust and dirt away so that the vision stays clear and unscarred.  We can remind ourselves that God has a greater imagination and can use us all, whether we're eyelashes or toenails or femurs or intestines or the tiniest cell.