flower

I am a college senior. Most days I forget until someone reminds me, and then my heart does a skittish Charleston atop my diaphragm.

Only seven months until the Uncharted Future is here.

And after three years of pursuing Christ with Christian Students on Campus, I’ve been anxious that my final year would be extra special for the Lord. I planned to be at every event, to take care of a dozen new students, and to have a mammoth revelation every time my Bible fell open.

But the year hasn’t measured up. With a tight schedule and a tendency to burn out right away, my heart keeps deflating at what appears to be a failed senior year. Why does my function in the Body feel like it grows smaller and smaller?

This is the bulk of my fretting—function, our practical role in the Body of Christ. What does our function look like, and what if it’s different from the person’s next to us? The Bible has much to say on this; we have a unique function that is apportioned to us through the ebbs and surges of life’s madness. The facts:

First, that every believer has a function. Ephesians 4:16 mentions the “operation in the measure of each one part.” If you fall into the category of “each one,” then you have an operation, a measure, a role; the enemy will tell us otherwise, but Christ has shut the serpent’s mouth! We can declare that we are in the Body and are therefore allocated a valid and important function.

It is also true that the measure of each one part can differ. I tend to split off into my own camp and compare my function to that of someone else. But in 1 Corinthians 12:15 Paul asserts, “And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.”

My fellow eyeball is usually that one person whose Christian life looks more pieced together than me and my ear-level contributions; but have you ever considered that both ears and eyes are especially teeny? This is the lesson and the beauty of the Body of Christ—that although each member is small, each is indispensable for the working of the whole. Paul makes this point in verse 17 when he asks, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?” Some of us are going out on the gospel, some are texting Bible verses to friends, and others of us are cooking for large gatherings. All our gifts, abilities, and availabilities are equally as important in the Lord’s move and purpose.

But there’s a higher, deeper, and more crucial aspect to our function and service to God. It’s seen in the progression from 1 Corinthians 12 to 13 when Paul says, “And moreover I show to you a most excellent way.” In a chapter often quoted, memorized, and found in greeting cards, Paul then reveals love as the highest function. Love is not the outward doing of things, but our inward cherishing of God that becomes the source of our outward living. Love pervades all service and service is ultimately an act of love.

So what is the significance of giving ourselves to love the Lord Jesus? First, it eliminates any discouragement, because there’s not a situation on earth that can prohibit our saying, “Lord Jesus I love You.” There’s no school or work schedule that can hamper our sweet confession or lessen our function as lovers of Christ. Second, it eliminates all comparison, because this is a function we all equally have.

But also, Big Picture: loving the Lord makes His heart happy—Jesus won’t come back until there’s a group of people on the earth who love Him as their Husband. If we should endeavor to “hasten” His return as in 2 Peter 3:12, the most effective way to spend our lives is by loving our Lord. So let’s not be robbed of our portion! No matter how life looks on the outside, we all have a glorious and essential function in the Body.

By: E. Kedzie

Erin Kedzie
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