Tang* G village Creation to Christ Bible Teaching Week 2—I set a new record for incompetence. We were less than 10 minutes out of my home village, and my friends had already insisted that someone carry my backpack for me. Not only did I wish to show myself not entirely useless by carrying my own backpack, I knew it wasn’t going to help. While the others were walking down a muddy hillside as we left the village and descended into the swamps, I was sliding and having trouble staying upright. And not having my backpack on didn’t change that—I was still slipping and sliding and with no good reason for it other than having grown up in a town instead of in the rainforest.
Five days later, I was returning with my friends, Ina believers, from G village. We were barely out of sight of the last hamlet when Gwen* insisted on carrying my backpack for me. As I walked along the jungle trail with my friends listening to their chatter but unable to understand it (I learned the Tang language, not Ina), I thought about the interdependence of the body of Christ.
God didn’t make any of us so that we “have it all.” God doesn’t need or want any of us to be able to supply everything a body of believers need. So while I was feeling ridiculous (yes, my pride was suffering) because I was only considered capable of carrying my water bottle, I thought about God’s desire for me to recognize my need for dependence on the Ina believers. On that Friday, while I wished to show myself not entirely helpless by being able to carry my own backpack, I realized that God desired for me to realize dependence. He reminded me that He wanted me to be aware of my dependence on other believers—and possibly He was also providing them an opportunity to remind them of my dependence on them. While I never enjoy creating extra work for people, I rejoiced in the opportunity to be aware of my dependence on the body of Christ.
But one and the same Spirits works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. For as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the one body though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For the body is not one member, but many. But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you.”‘ or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 1 Cor 12:11-22 (NASB)
*Names changed throughout this blog.