When One Member Suffers!

Okay, so I woke up this morning with a bad case of gout in my left foot big toe.  Now I don't know how many of my readers have ever experienced gout but I can tell you it is one painful malady!  They tell me it's the build up of uric acid in your system that settles in a joint (apparently the big toe is the most common) and it "crystallizes" making the pain sharp and intense!  It can swell and it can become warm to the touch and it will make you miserable!  Believe me, I now!

So all day, up to the present moment, I have been catering to, favoring my big toe.  My whole body (including my brain, my mind) has turned all its attention to my big toe.  As my big toe hurts, my whole being hurts!  My whole world hurts!  And I am doing everything I know to make the pain stop!

As I have been experiencing this entirely too much pain for such a small member of my body I was reminded of something (by luck or the Holy Spirit?) the Apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians 12:1

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body though many are one body, so it is with Christ..."

and the beginning of verse 26,

"If one member suffers, all suffer together..."

Because of my one member - my big toe - suffering from gout, my entire body suffers together!

And this made me think of the suffering that goes on within the body of Jesus on this earth and how every member of the body of Jesus is necessary, valuable and important.  And when one member of the body suffers we all suffer.  Like the poor and homeless within the body of Jesus.  Yes, I know, I can hear some of you thinking, "Well, if they really were Christians they wouldn't be poor and homeless."

Well, I'm going to ignore such stupidity except to say that I have had the privilege of working with the poor and homeless for a long time and the truth is when I first started I thought I would evangelize, heal and save millions!  As it has turned out many of my homeless and poor friends have converted me.  I have learned so much and been inspired so often.

We, as the body of Jesus, need to do a much better job of catering to, favoring the suffering members among us by paying attention, getting to know, and loving them...just like Paul (and Jesus) told us.

Peace,
Dennis