On Wanting to be "Mouth"

It's so hard to understand God's timing and God's plan, isn't it? I don't think that I ever fully will, but I am getting better at identifying it. Thank God, the Holy Spirit pacifies people who just don't get it sometimes. You know, people like me.

You see, there's this ...set of circumstances... in my life that I just don't get. I found out some information today, and I was like "Really? Why them? Why not me? REALLY?" (It was not unlike that segment on SNL's Weekend Update that Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers used to do.) I just didn't get it. It still doesn't seem to make any sense.

Okay, so while my mind is going through a bitter set of doubts and disappointing self talk, Holy Spirit, like, randomly starts interjecting stuff from the likes of Jeremiah 29:11, Ecclesiastes 3, and Proverbs 31:25. To be honest, I responded to that in a very Weekend Update kind of way. Wasn't God supposed to be ashamed at this injustice, or, at the very least, disapproving? And then God reminded me that His people form a body, that the mouth is no more important than the fingers, and that, as long as that body is oxygenated by His heart, with His mind over our matter, it cannot be anything but healthy. God designates who gets to be Mouth, and who gets to be Finger. After all, saliva and vocal chords wouldn't help someone who wanted to give a high five or write a note. Neither would knuckles and cuticles help someone sing a song or deliver a message. (In reality, the church needs to be a complete body, full of those who deliver the Good News by speaking it, writing it, and acting it out.)

It's still so hard for me to grasp God's reasons for making me one part of the body, as opposed to the other. I know God's truth about these things on a head level, but some ideas have yet to diffuse into my heart. Why is that so hard for us? I know I'm not the only one that struggles with this. Is it the fact that churches seem to showcase those who are Mouth? Could be. But I think it goes much deeper than that.

Because, as all God-related things seem to connect, I am also reminded of a certain sermon entitled "Blood Brothers." On Sunday, we learned, or rather, were reminded of the fact that it is our nature to look out for number one. So, basically, it is very natural for us to act in a way that says, "I am mouth, hear me roar," or "I am hand, see me punch." What do we do with that??? Well, really, we can do nothing. Once again, it is God who puts us in exactly the right place at the right time. Under His direction, we can say, "I am Mouth, let me tell you about what He has done in me," or "I am Hand, let me pat you on the back and push you forward to better things."

So, back to my, um, distressing situation. It just doesn't seem so distressing anymore. I know that God has designated me the right position in the body. I think some diffusion just happened. And I give God thanks for that. He's got me right where he wants me.

"¹⁴Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body." - I Corinthians 12:14-20