Tag: What I Learned that Summer of Vicodin

It was 2007, or “the Summer of Vicodin” (as I’ve since dubbed it), when I ruptured a disc in my back. The pain was intense, in constant need of management, and unforgiving of any misstep. But I wanted to remain active, even if only in small ways, so one evening Peggy and I set out for a (very) slow walk. About three houses down from ours, a serenading songbird burst forth into solo, and I instinctively looked in the direction of the little soprano. As I jerked my head high up and to the right, a searing pain shot through my ankle, down low and to my left! There I began to realize how intricate the interconnectivity among all the components of the human body.

The same is true of the body of Christ: we are truly joined together, much more so than we realize. This is God’s desire and plan for us. On the evening of His betrayal, Jesus’ implored of the Father that believers “may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me —so that they may be brought to complete unity.”¹ And so we have, as Paul explained, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”² We, who are many, blend into one — intricately interconnected — thus, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”³ This is who we are; it is our collective identity as the Church into which we are called to live, grow, and mature.

Now, putting others first is warm and lofty in an aspirational sense, but in actuality our sin nature bristles at inconvenience and chafes at sacrifice, and it is prone to envy the success of others. So Paul directs our attention “high up and to the right” so to speak: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”⁴ This is a jolt to our sin nature— “a searing pain down low and to the left” — for “the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.”⁵ Undaunted in conflict, Paul calls us onward, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.”⁶ This is what it looks like as, in Christ, “me” gives way to “we.” May we so live.

“Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2 NLT

Father, Your ways are infinitely higher than ours, and You call us to walk in them. Inspire us, the body of Christ, that we would genuinely care for others in our thoughts, words, and deeds. In Christ we pray. Amen.