The Effectiveness of the Body

“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…” Romans‬ ‭12:4-6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

We are officially one week into this disaster response, and the number of stories, moments, and lessons that I hope to share with you all is already seemingly endless. 

I could start by sharing about the constant glow of the community that I am surrounded by, the incredible way that God is moving within the wards of our field hospital, the evident peace of God in the midst of what should be chaos, or details of the heart transformations that we have witnessed as the love of God has been encountered. 

I am sure that there will come a time to share those things in one form or another, but today, what is really on my mind as a result of week one is the effectiveness of the  body of Christ and it’s many parts. 

For the past few years, I was walking in the belief that I would be most effective as a Christian if I were surrounded by non-Christians. Sure, I had my faith community at every stop along the way – whether near or far geographically, but to me, spending most of my time with people who didn’t know Christ meant more opportunities for Christ. 

This past week, as I have been submerged into and surrounded by a community of individuals who have placed Jesus in the center of their lives, my eyes have been opened to something that I had completely overlooked in the past. 

Do you recall the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child”? Well, God uses a village to bring His children to Him. 

The effectiveness of me alone is a far cry from the effectiveness of the functioning body of Christ… and the opportunities; they will come. When your motive is His glory, He will provide. 

This past week, I have watched patient after patient directly experience the love of Christ. God has moved in incredible ways. But the most beautiful thing about it is that just as I have been submerged in a community of people living their lives for Christ, so are they. Our patients are not just seeing the love of Christ in one person every now and then. They are 100% immersed in His love day in and day out. It’s just unavoidable. They cannot not see it. 

It would be like walking into a rodeo and not seeing a cowboy. If you’ve ever been to a rodeo, you know that there is not a single direction that you could turn your head and not see a cowboy hat and that large, shiny belt buckle. Likewise, there is not a single way that our patients can look and not see the love of Christ. 

We are absolutely addressing our patient’s medical needs and hopeful for their physical recovery, but we, collectively as a team, are even more hopeful that every single patient will recognize that they have encountered the love of Christ, whether simply by the way that they are cared for, through a few words of encouragement, or in a series of conversations.  

Today, I watched one of my patients wave goodbye as he was being loaded into the back of an ambulance in route back to the main hospital. He was one step closer to going home. A few hours later, our transporter informed me that the two of them had a really good conversation about the need for Christ in this broken world. 

I thought back about all of the people that God had used to reach this man in the past 48 hours; the way that God had lavished him in His love. I reflected on the many conversations that he and I had about Christ, salvation, and assurance. I thought about the encounters that he had with my coworkers, the conversations that filled his time spent with our chaplain on his rounds, and those moments spent with our transporter on the way back to the hospital. 

Though I will likely never know the impact of his exposure to the love of Christ in this lifetime, I trust that our patient heard exactly what he needed to hear throughout these past few days from the voices of multiple people. He was surely a witness to the body of Christ in action and I have no doubt that God will continue to water the seeds that He has allowed us the opportunity to sow. 

God has shaped me in seasons of walking physically alone in this journey of faith, and for that, I am so thankful. But this week, and even more so today, I am thankful to be a part of the body. I am thankful to be in a place where I have begun to more greatly appreciate the importance of the many members of the body and I am thankful to be a witness of the effectiveness of the body of Christ at work as one. 

The body of Christ, with the motive of glorying God, is and always will be much more effective than a stand alone. 

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.