The Body of Christ

In reading 1 Corinthians 12:14-27 (about the body of Christ) while preparing for my Bible study tonight, I noticed a key phrase that had never really caught my eye before. Verse 18 reads:

"But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased."

 Each and every one of us thus has a function intended for us by God. We don't get to choose our function, beyond a limited range, because God has equipped us with specific talents and given us specific opportunities. As a hand, we could choose whether to wield a sword or carry healing herbs, for example, but we wouldn't be able to choose to be a foot or an eye. So, our responsibility as a hand would be to live as faithfully for Christ, in our unique position in the body, as we can, even if we don't always enjoy that position. It is not our responsibility to choose what seems like the most "Christian" profession to us and force ourselves into that mold, if God is calling us elsewhere, and it is not our privilege to pick the most prestigious or comfortable position and aim for that. God gets to choose what part of the body we are.

That might sound constraining to some but to me it sounds so freeing! If God has chosen what part I am to play in the body, then all I need to do is trust Him and obey Him - to follow hard after Him and seek to know Him more - and He will reveal to me what my function should be in the body and then by His Spirit transform me into a more godly hand or nose or ear or whatever I might be. I don't need to worry about finding the ideal vocation and pursuing it wholeheartedly - I just need to pursue God wholeheartedly and let Him lead me into the vocation He has chosen for me. And whatever it is, I can also be free from the stress and distraction of comparison and jealousy because I know I am doing what God has called me to do, and that my part of the body is just as much a functional and good part as any other! What I mean is that while I may not be a missionary or a translator, I am still a part of the body set where God was pleased to place me, doing the work He has given me to do in this time of my life, and following after Him, and that honors Him more than performing those other functions in an attempt to win glory for myself.