The many parts of the Body of Christ

The other day, I had the opportunity to help build a deck for someone. I had never really built anything before and hadn't really ever used power tools, either; it wasn't until after I said I would help I realized maybe this knowledge and skill set would come in handy. But alas, I was there, and we were building a deck, so I tried to learn what we were doing and be helpful.

In that humble position, I was met with love: people were patient with me and explained to me multiple times how to do something. They waited without saying anything to me when I took much longer than they would have to use the tools. They kindly encouraged me when the level of my skill probably deserved otherwise.

At the end of the day, the look on the person's face whom we built the deck for was incredible. It was a reminder to me of how good it is to get out of my comfort zone and reap the rewards that come from humbling myself to learn something new.

There is value in the humility found in doing something we're not good at. Often, I expect to automatically be good at the things I'm doing and forget it's OK if I'm not. Not being good at something doesn't mean I have to give up; rather, I can work at it and subject myself to the humility of slow progress. And then because I have experienced that myself, I can extend the grace of patience, love and belief to others who are slow at the things I am good at, helping to cultivate their abilities, too.

Working with the team to build the deck also reminded me of the value in the unique gifts we each bring to the table. There were several people in our group who were skilled at carpentry and had a vision for the deck; they did a lot of the labor and also helped the rest of us along. There was someone who was incredibly thoughtful who got lunch for our group and made sure we were all fed. There was someone else who was good at mingling with others who took photos of the work being done. And I personally loved talking with the person whose deck we were building, hearing her story and getting to share my own, too.

It was fun getting to see in action what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:20 (NAB): "There are many parts, yet one body." Serving from a position of humility reminds me I don't have to be all of the parts of the body; I am uniquely gifted to help make up the body. By getting out of my comfort zone and doing things I'm not necessarily good at, I can lay my pride down and come to appreciate the gifts of others, as well. It takes all of us.