Nightmare!
Ron Writes
Last Saturday night I had a recurring nightmare. In my dream everything goes wrong. On my way to the podium, I realize that no one has cleaned the building and everything is in disarray. There’s stuff laying everywhere. When I get to the podium someone has left their pistol laying there (remember it’s a dream) and I’m trying to figure out how to discreetly put this gun somewhere safe. For some strange reason in my dream, I’m also leading songs. No song slides have been picked out and no songs have been selected. In the dream, I’m thinking that’s no problem I can just lead some by heart. But I can’t remember the words to a single song. So I just decide to preach, but I don’t have any notes, nothing, I have forgotten to prepare a lesson and I can’t think of anything to say (this is the part that’s recurring each time I have this nightmare). Me having nothing to say is probably the dream many have. So, we move on the Lord’s supper and wouldn’t you know it, there’s none available. Then I woke up.
As I thought about this dream, I began to think about how much we depend on one another. We never have to wonder if the building will be clean. Songs will be selected and a song leader will be ready. The elements for the Lord’s supper have been prepared. And I can’t think of a Sunday when I wasn’t prepared to preach, even if it might sometimes seem to the contrary.
Several times Paul compares the church to a body. He wants to make it clear that “the body is not one member, but many” (1 Cor. 12:14). There are a variety of gifts and ministries in the church, just as each member of our human bodies have their own purpose. In Romans 12, the emphasis seems to be on the mistake some might make in thinking too highly of themselves, as if they can do it all. In 1 Cor. 12, there’s the thought that some might be jealous of not having the ministry they want. “If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body” (vs. 15). The point in both passages is that everyone is an important and a needed member of the church, no matter what their gift might be.
Every aspect of our ministries reminds us of this great lesson. Our annual All Summer Bible Adventure (ASBA) is set to start. Not everyone does the skits, or builds the sets, or decorates, or takes care of the Bar-b-que, or plans the games, or teaches the classes. Each faithfully does their part, so that our children especially might be taught and in the end - God will be glorified.