Church, Part 3:
Here's the last part, which is equally challenging:

As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. -1 Corinthians 12:20-23.

At first this might seem like this is saying the same thing that it did in the last passage. But that passage focused on the way that the church needs people. This passage focuses on the way that people need the church. This takes away the even greater excuse I catch myself using: that I don't need a church to be connected with God, that I can go it alone, that I can be a church of one.

A few years ago I had this situation explained to me with the following story: Once, a man was lifting weights at the gym. Somehow, one of the weights slipped, caught one of his fingers, and tore off the tip. Gross, I know. Bear with me. The man was rushed to the hospital. Once there, they asked him where the fingertip was so that they could reattach it. But the fingertip was nowhere to be found. After a few days, someone found the fingertip stuck in the hole part in a stack of weights--the part that the bar goes through. But by then, the fingertip had been separated from the man's body for too long, it was dead, and it could not be reattached. The moral of the story: if you are separated from the body for too long, you will die, spiritually speaking. I have never forgotten that story. It really and truly scared me to think about, and that story always comes to mind whenever I think about going it on my own.

Your relationship with God is a personal, one-on-one type of thing. But God also designed us to experience a relationship with him through our relationships with people. We are meant to meet together, to pray and worship together, to confess our sins to each other and pray for each other, to encourage and lift each other up. People need the church. We need the church for support, but more importantly, we need it for protection.

Consider this passage:

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. -1Peter 5:8-9

Lions kill the animals that they are able to separate from the rest of the herd. You've heard the term, "safety in numbers"? Spiritually speaking, this is doubly true. Alone, we are very vulnerable to attack. It doesn't take us long to get discouraged, to fall out of the habit of talking with God, to harden our hearts against people. But together, we can help each other to stand firm.

So: Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. . . -Hebrews 10:24-25

Notice that it keeps saying "we" and "us." Again and again, we are reminded that we are meant to be together. We are needed by the church, and we need church. We are parts of one body.

What part am I? Maybe a mouth (although I am trying, with varying success, to learn to be quiet and gentle). I think I'd like to be an eye.

Church, Part 2:
The second passage talks about the body parts:

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? -1 Corinthians 12:15-19

Here is where it gets challenging for me. It is saying, to my understanding, that the church needs different members. It is meant to be made up of many different parts. We are not meant to be all the same, or to serve the same way, or to do the same things. We each have our different function, and each one of us is uniquely needed by the church. This takes away this excuse that I can sometimes get about not fitting in. I'm shy when it comes to picking a church. My husband and I have moved a lot in the last few years, and when we come to a new place, I always feel so much fear and insecurity about being part of a new church. I think, I'm not needed here the way I was at my last church. Maybe they won't like me. I'm different than they are. I think in a different way. Which, according to this passage, is exactly what is needed.

Churches need people. This seems like a no-brainer, really, but it's something that a lot of people don't really think to apply to themselves. If you are a follower of Christ, the body needs you to be a part of the body, serving your unique function. As a Christian, you are part of the body, whether you like it or not. You can't say that you're not part of the body because you're not like everybody else. You are a part of the body, and you are meant to function within it!

Church, Part 1:

I've been thinking about what it means to be part of a church. So often when I think of the word "church," I think of a building. Remember that game you played as a kid where you interlaced your fingers and said, "Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the doors and here's all the people!" and wiggled your fingers around? That's how we often learn what church is, a building with a steeple and people inside.

My church growing up had a big silver dome on top, not a steeple. It had two large stained-glass windows in the sanctuary. One of the windows was an angel with outspread wings. This window faced outside and would cast colors all around when struck by the sun. The other window, my favorite, was an image of Jesus, looking regal and kind. There were other people in the picture, too, although I don't really remember them now. Someone kneeling, I think, near Jesus' feet. As a child and teenager, I used to sneak into the sanctuary when it was empty and stare at that window and pray. Just looking at it made me feel that strange melancholy beauty that choked me. It was especially potent at night, when the window was illuminated from a light outside. The sanctuary was quiet, full of the smells of the old building, the organ pipes, dust, the hint of the pastor's cologne. And there was Jesus, shining out of that window, beautiful and full of grace. To me, that was church. It was a solitary moment between me and a stained-glass Jesus.

In my early twenties I joined a church that had no permanent building. We were nomads. We were always meeting at different places: other church buildings that we rented, parks, conference rooms, and auditoriums. We worshipped God wherever we could, in one large group, in smaller groups in living rooms, one-on-one in places like the mall food court. We had no organ, no pulpit, no pews. We had each other, and that was about it. This is where I learned that church is not a building. It is a group of people. It is a body, one that stretches all around the world.

Here's what the Bible says about this body in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13:

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

There is a whole long section of 1 Corinthians 12 that I mean to study in depth, to try to understand what it means to be a part of this body. But for now, I want to just look at these first two verses. This passage lays down the metaphor of the church (meaning Christians all over the world) being a body. As believers, we may be different, we may be spread out all over the place, but we are a part of a unified body. I like the idea of us having one Spirit, working in us all.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. -Ephesians 4:29

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. -Jesus, in Luke 6:45

I studied these scriptures yesterday as part of my tongue taming study. I am particularly convicted by the first passage, which tells us that our speech should only serve to build others up. I think I need a sign or something, to remind me every minute of every day: Before you say a word, consider this: is what you are about to say positive? Is it an overflow of the good in your heart, or the bad? Is it going to benefit the person listening?

Then I would probably not say what I was going to say. . . It's funny how we can get into these habits, after years of practice, that are destructive to our spirit. I think I have always used my speech as proof of my intellect, as a way of expressing how perceptive and insightful I am, as a writer, as a woman. Maybe I should consider this more often:

Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue. -Proverbs 17:28

So, being quiet is a better way to be seen as wise!

Yesterday, I attended a party. There were all kinds of people that I respected there: writers, some famous writers whose work I love, and of course I talked and talked. And talked. I'm telling you, I need the sign. . . But when I think back on the night, I realize that those writers who I respect so much didn't really say much themselves. . . and they appeared so wise.

And I so foolish.

Thumper had it right: If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all.

I read The Da Vinci Code a few weeks ago, and to tell the truth, I had a difficult time understanding why the book sold as many copies as it did. It is not particularly well written, even for a genre novel. The characters seemed forced in their actions and speech. Brown also has this annoying tendency to withhold information from the reader just for the sake of suspense, which is, to me, a sign of weakness in a novel. It shows that the events in the novel themselves do not carry enough tension with them to maintain our interest; therefore, the writer keeps things from us to make us keep reading.

Still, my husband and I were among the masses of people who apparently flocked to see the movie this weekend. It wasn't surprising to me that I wasn't any more pleased with the movie than I was with the book. The part of the book that was really interesting to me, the discussion of all the different theories, was greatly abridged for the movie. I can understand why. I also thought that there was no real spark in either of the main characters, no real playfulness or true curiousity, which I think is greatly needed for a story like this.

I did enjoy seeing the settings and paintings up close, however. I am particularly interested in Da Vinci's The Last Supper, which I have included above. Yes, there seems to be a woman sitting to the right of Jesus. I think this is fascinating. Is this really a woman? In that case, which of the twelve disciples is missing from the table?

I wasn't bothered by the book or the movie, not in a spiritual sense, because I see them both as merely fiction. Dan Brown tries his best to make us believe that it is based on truth, but his theories crumble with even the tiniest bit of pressure. I heard a wonderful article on NPR about this subject by religion scholar Bart D. Erhman, which I would recommend for anyone who is tempted to take Brown's story at face value:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5364195

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. -1 Peter 3:3-5

This scripture has always inspired and challenged me. A beautiful woman, in God's eyes, is one with a gentle and quiet spirit. I don't know about you, but those two words don't describe me in the least. I am extremely passionate, often too intense, about most of the things going on in my life. I am also a chatterbox, especially around my very quiet husband. I need God's help in a major way!

I have recently been reading Elizabeth George's book, A Wife After God's Own Heart. It's been a wonderful read so far, very insightful and full of advice. There is an entire chapter devoted to learning to communicate in a spiritual way, which I have found so helpful in my quest to become a woman of gentle and quiet spirit.