Do You Hear What I Hear?

"All of our listening doesn’t have to look the same. Listening may move me to do something completely different from you. Give yourself permission to impact the world in the unique ways only you can do, and extend grace to those around you to do the same."

~Emily Freeman

I am living in a place and time where really good things are being done all around me. People, acquaintances, and friends, are going, teaching, preaching -- all for the cause of Christ.  And I struggle.  Because "going" may not mean the same thing for me that it means for you.  I don't believe God has created us all to do the same thing, or go to the same place. I DO BELIEVE that he equips us to do what he has called US to do.  But that can put me in a very different place than it puts you.

What I know is that, as the body of Christ, we each perform a role.

"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.  If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.  If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully."  ~Romans 12:4-8

And, I am no less a part of The Body if I do not perform the same role as others do.

"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.  If 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.  And 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.  If 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?  But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
   The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"  On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable..."  ~I Corinthians 12:14-22

The challenge?

Use caution.

Don't judge.

Everyone cannot be the feet.

Extend grace (as Emily put it)

to those who are impacting the world

in the way God has shown THEM.

{11/11/11 @11:11AM}