Belonging in the Body: Let Them, Let Me

But I've struggled with that because she and I are still connected. They still go to a church. We're still siblings in Christ. And yet there were some boundaries, and so, you know, it's okay to set boundaries. This this body analogy is a beautiful analogy because skin is one of the biggest boundaries we have in our body. It prevents infection from coming in. And so it's important that we'd be able to set those boundaries, but also to remember that we're still connected. [00:40:51] (31 seconds)  #BoundariesAndConnection

So if I'm going to let people be who God created them to be, then I need to be who God created me to be and I need to take responsibility for what I'm going to do because we can't control traffic, we can't control people's moods, we can't control their attitudes, we can't control, you know, so much in our lives. But what can we control? Ourselves and being the people that God created us to be. [00:50:26] (31 seconds)  #BeWhoGodCreatedYou

So this scripture invites us to recognize that we are all a part of that body. We hurt when each other hurts. We rejoice when each other rejoices. But together, because we are different, we can solve problems, we can reestablish those connections, and we can remember that God has given us this gift to use to demonstrate to the world that God's love is stronger than anything that threatens to divide us. [00:59:13] (32 seconds)  #UnitedInGodsLove

And so I want you all to go and live that we are connected. Every single one of you belong and we belong to each other and we belong to God. And so go, helping everyone experience that love, that sense of belonging so that one day the world will know God's amazing grace in Jesus. [01:03:57] (24 seconds)  #SpreadBelonging

And so it helps us to understand that, you know, a foot can't say, well, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong. Everyone belongs. Everyone belongs. And, you know, a hand can't say, well or an eye can't say to a hand, I don't need you. Right? That's not true. We need each other. And there's this beautiful sense of interdependence on one another even as vastly different as we are from each other. [00:44:42] (33 seconds)  #AllPartsNeeded

But we don't live like that often. Often, we gather ourselves into we're gonna be the hand church, we're gonna be the feet church, right, we're gonna be the ear church. We gather with people that are more alike us instead of recognizing that we have gifts to offer each other in our differences. Our differences themselves are beautiful gifts that we need, that we can learn from, that we rely on to have our healthiest life. [00:45:16] (31 seconds)  #CelebrateDifferences

And that's such a beautiful analogy of this body of Christ that we're talking about. Right? Where it's like all of us are created in the image of god, and that means when we look at each other, we can see that image in one another. We can see a little bit about who god is in each other even with people with whom we vehemently disagree. [00:48:02] (25 seconds)  #SeeGodInOthers

These two people who still he was still Republican, she was still a progressive Democrat, but they saw each other on a deeper level. She could hurt when someone else was hurting. She could take joy when someone else took joy. And that's what the body does for one another. We see each other at a deeper level. We we celebrate when each other is celebrating, and we bear some of the burdens for one another. [00:56:39] (35 seconds)  #NeighborsNotEnemies