All of Us

Have you ever visited an "Escape Room"?  There's one in the town where I live, but I have yet to try my hand at this new form of entertainment. However, it's also one of the new techniques used in education to help students learn how to work in a group while reviewing or learning new academic information.  In a technology training last summer, I had the opportunity to participate in an example of this type of lesson.

Last week I tried out a similar activity in one of the classes I co-teach.  The students had to work together to solve puzzles, find clues, and decipher codes with no guidance from me or their classroom teacher. They had to rely on each other, listen to the ideas of their teammates, solve problems as a group, and be willing to try approaches that were different than their own.  They had a blast!

After the activity was over, we all talked about how that exercise was like real life.  In most businesses and occupations, people have to rely on the gifts, talents, and knowledge of others to accomplish the objectives of the organization.  While the activity and the discussion that followed was good for my elementary students, it brings up an even better reminder to us as members of the body of Christ.

My pastor likes to say that not one of us is as smart as all of us and not one of us is as strong as all of us together.  We were never designed to walk out this Christian life on our own.  We need each other - not just to work together to accomplish tasks, but just to be there for each other - encouraging, exhorting, teaching, interceding, and serving.

There are spiritual gifts that each of us has that were meant to be shared. What we lack, someone else can give to us. What they lack, we can share with them.  Every time the voice of the Holy Spirit urges us toward some kind of action and we hold back because of fear or self-consciousness, we are robbing our brothers and sisters of a blessing that God desired to give them.

I like the way the Living Bible expresses Ephesians 4:16:

Instead, we will lovingly follow the truth at all times - speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly - and so become more and more in every way like Christ who is the Head of his body, the Church. Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly, and each part in its own special way helps the other parts so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Are you doing your part?  Are you helping in the church where God has placed you?  Are you solving problems, searching for knowledge, contributing your skills?  If a third grader can work in a cooperative group and unlock virtual locks, certainly you can be a functioning member of a healthy, growing, loving body of believers unlocking the promise of God for the corporate body where He has placed you.