A Little Lesson

We are never indispensable. Someone else can always step in and pick up and carry on when we can't. That can be a very disheartening thing that makes us feel unvalued and replaceable. But if I learned nothing else this week I learned that when we are dispensable, we get to be part of a living moving body that adjusts and fills in the gaps. God says we are Christ's body and that we all have equal value and importance and we have to work together. Sometimes that means when the eyes can't see the ears fill in the gap, when the feet can't move the hands step in. On Wednesday morning, I moved the wrong way and my hips haven't been cooperating since. I've been laying in bed, struggling to complete basic daily things like eating and changing my clothes and using the bathroom. I've never been in so much pain before. There was nothing I could do except pray for the pain to ease and attempt to rest. There is nothing quite so humiliating than to have to be picked up off the floor because your legs won't lift you. But maybe the better word to use is "humbling". It is very humbling to need assistance with very simple things I took for granted just 24 hours beforehand. And to be unable to do my job and run the kitchen and feed the camp has been frustrating. I feel inadequate, unuseful, and lazy. I lay here watching others step in and do my job and make sure things keep running smoothly and I feel like a failure. But then today I looked at it differently. It's truly a blessing to watch my team gather around me and support me and fill in. To see them sacrifice rest and other jobs they need to do to help me. God gives so much extra strength in these moments. When it feels like there's no one, no time, no room for adjustments, a little gap appears in someone's schedule and all the sudden there's more people than needed! I'm so thankful for the people God has brought to this field that I'm privileged to work with, grow with, cry with, laugh with. And while I continue to battle the lie that I'm worthless because I can't work, I will continue to be thankful for the people God has placed in my life and the strength He gives when we reach the end of ours.