1 Corinthians 12:18-20
“God has placed each part in the body just as he wanted it to be. If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body? As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body.“
There is an old saying, “variety is the spice of life.” This idea applies to many things in life, but for me, it makes a lot of sense when it comes to food. I enjoy tasting different kinds of foods from different places, and will try almost anything at least once. Most recently, during our time in Turkiye the pastor of the church and his wife had the team over to their home after Easter service for dinner. They made some delicious traditional Persian dishes for us, and it was amazing to have home cooked food from an entirely different culture I had never experienced. We spent the evening sharing with each other about our lives, churches, relationships, and history, and it was a great evening of food and fellowship together.
Over the past few weeks the pastoral team has been working through discipleship level 3 which is titled “Lead Well.” One part of the lesson this week caught my attention, and it’s the fact that in faith, it is sometimes best to commit to a “both/and” mentality instead of “either/or” approach. What this means is that it’s sometimes best to choose a combination of two different things instead of picking one over the other.
Of course, this only applies to the good things God has given us, not about compromising with sin. A good both/and example is that we should not pick between grace or truth. Learn to emphasize both grace and truth! Don’t pick between faith and common sense. Use both faith and common sense when you make decisions! Don’t focus only on personal time with God, or only on time with other Christians. Have both time with God and time with other believers! If I can return to my food analogy, don’t only choose between Italian or Indian food. Having both is the best!
Personally, one of the biggest “both/and” things I’ve been learning about is self-initiative vs. dependence on God. My natural tendency is toward dependence on God, and away from self-initiative. What I’ve learned is that while it’s good to be dependent on God, when this dependence begins to take away from my initiative, I know I’ve fallen too much to one side. On the other hand, it is good to take initiative, but when our own efforts begin to take centre stage instead of paying attention to God and what God may be doing, then we know we’ve fallen too much to the other side.
I think that God truly works through both our dependence on him, as well as our self-initiative. A good example are the two most recent mission projects we’ve taken on at Lifespring. For Turkiye, we were introduced to this opportunity very much through dependence on God. It was Adrian who approached us with this opportunity, without any prompting from us. On the other hand, our relationship with Neighbourlink emphasized our initiative a bit more. We visited the Food Hub for several months, then discussed ways we could serve their ministry. We asked Neighbourlink if we could serve coffee at the Food Hub, and we’re testing that idea out this week. At times, God brings along opportunities and relationships without us doing anything. At other times, we need to knock on doors and try different things and trust that God is in it all.
As we mature as a church family, I hope that we can begin to grow into a both/and approach in the areas where God is pressing us to seek balance rather than falling too far to one side. And may we learn to appreciate the different giftings, characteristics, and strengths of the entire body of Christ. As 1 Corinthians 12:18-20 says, a body is meant to have many different parts, and not all be the same. May we learn to appreciate instead of resist the wonderful variety that God has given us as a body, whether it be in terms of generations, ethnicities, life stages, callings, or otherwise.