Be Yourself
Stop.
How would you describe your culture? What are your standards, taboos, values, behaviors, and assumptions? In what ways does your culture and its practices welcome or exclude others?
Listen.
For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. – Romans 12:4-5
Reflect.
“Oh, Pastor, I wish I could be like you. You get to spend your whole day praying and reading scripture. I could never do that, but I wish I could.”
I hear things like this a lot. Many people have expressed regret that they can’t be pastors, but with a nuance that has a more disheartened undertone. It’s not that these people wanted to be pastors – they love being teachers, bankers, technicians, and farmers. Instead, they have come to believe that being a pastor is somehow a superior profession. Pastors have the best jobs, but only some people can have it, so everyone else just has to make do.
Don’t get me wrong: I love being a pastor. But I’m under no illusion that it’s the best job. It’s just one job of many that builds community, serves those in need, and does God’s work. Those things can also be true for teachers, bankers, technicians, and farmers. There is no subordinate in God’s kingdom. We all work together for the good of each other and the gospel.
In Romans, Paul speaks to a similar sentiment. Some have given the idea that there are better positions in the community. Some are obviously of higher value and others of lower value. Paul speaks against that very clearly. While some body parts serve very important functions, all body parts work to keep a body functioning and healthy. In the body of Christ, we won’t all serve the same roles – and we shouldn’t. No matter the part we play, we work to keep the community functioning and healthy.
The same applies to the full expression of humanity. We don’t all need to act one way – it would be like a knee trying to be an ear. It just doesn’t work like that. We all have different ways of functioning in the world. We all come from different cultures and practices. That is good and of God. Not one of us needs to try harder to be more like someone else. We need only work to be authentic to who God created us to be for the good of the community we’re in, the people around us, and the gospel we all serve.
Pray.
I thank you, God, for making all your people different and beautiful. Help me to better understand who and what you have made me to be. Grant me appreciation for the fullness of what you have made others to be. Let all your people work together in many ways for the good of your gospel. Amen.
Carry On.
What’s one way you can learn about another culture or ethnicity today? Can you watch a movie, read a book, see a lecture, or look at art that comes from another community, country, faith tradition, or era? How do you see God’s inspiration at work in it?