Broken Finger (1 Corinthians 11-12)

I’m going to go ahead and skip over these wonderfully controversial passages … and go right to the latter half of Chapter 12.

I, like many people, often struggle with figuring out where I fit in this whole body of Christ and how I’m worth something etc. but I also find myself trying to figure out what it actually means for us to all be a part of a body together. We are called to bear each other’s burdens, rejoice with each other, “live together” through our lives, but what does that look like?

Let me illustrate with my best friend from elementary school. She got in her fair share of accidents resulting in bodily harm, but most memorable to me is when she broke her finger from falling off a couch. She was a regularly active girl, but when her finger broke, her entire body focused on healing it. She couldn’t do certain things because her hand/arm was in a cast, like partaking in gym class for a while. And, according to science class, her body was focusing on healing it as well. Similar to when we’re sick and our body focuses on getting better, not on running a marathon. I think this is like what we should be like as the body. We should be caring for each other, and when we “bear burdens” together, we walk through it together. We don’t just leave the broken finger by itself and try to play piano the next day. We rest and make sure we allow it to heal, slowly strengthening it back to its former state.

We should be taking time to genuinely focus on helping each other – and that way when one is honoured or blessed, we are all blessed in the same way. It’s a huge call to think of others before ourselves, but just like a broken finger or an illness, we need to care for each other as we strive together to honour God.

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