This one time, at work, there was this one photocopier. It worked great! It collated, stapled, scanned, everything I (Orin) needed it to do.
One day I arrived at work, at there was an “out of order” sign hung on it. Asking around, I learned that one of the “feet”, on one corner of the bottom of the copier, has broken, and without it, the whole copier leaned just a little bit in that direction.
“What does that matter?” I asked.
Well, I found out that if the copier wasn’t very close to level, it would put strain on the motor which ran the light across the glass, it would have trouble feeding the paper out of the drawers, the toner might settle in the cartridge, and probably a few other things which have since left my memory.
That is, if the copier’s “foot” was broken, the whole copier fell into disarray and couldn’t function, even if the only issue was that it leaned over an inch or so.
Consider this passage now from Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 12:20b-26)
There are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.” Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it,so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.
If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.
Take some time to reflect today: which part of the body of Christ is suffering today? How de we all suffer because of their suffering? How do we ease that suffering? Hint: it’s not as easy as fixing a broken foot on a photocopier. Where are the issues, and how do we address them? Take it to prayer, and then turn prayer into action.