1 Corinthians 12:14-26 (NIV)
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being 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 stop being 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 placed 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? 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. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Dear Fellow Hikers,
I have always appreciated the above passage from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. I love how it passionately expresses the value of individual parts of the body, and shares how critical it is to also look at those parts collectively as a whole body. And knowing that as they suffer or rejoice, they will do it as one. This scripture has long been on my list of must do Life Hike Letter topics.
One of the benefits of being a police chief, and my ensuing job of being a police chiefs chaplain, is that I was able to attend a wide variety of police conferences and training events. Over the years I have heard more conference speakers and instructors than I can count. But it always amazes me how I can occasionally have a strong connection with certain messages and messengers. As I was pondering possible ideas for today’s letter, and studying Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, the words of University of Minnesota Football Coach Jerry Kill made their way into my thoughts.
About a decade ago, I was attending a MN State Chiefs Conference where Coach Kill was a keynote speaker. His message hit me hard as one of those strong connection experiences. I remember his message being very engaging as he did a demonstration, taking some chiefs out of the audience and running them through an exercise. The purpose was to show the importance of teamwork developed through players having a solid understanding of individual roles, and how those roles impacted the team’s performance as a whole. I don’t recall the exact details of his message, but I do remember his main and concluding talking point…“Know your job… Know the jobs of the people standing next to you… then go out and Do Your Job.”
As I worked through the words of the Apostle Paul (AP) and Coach Kill (CK), I realized that even though their words were different, the spirit of those words had a lot in common. But even with that common spirit, I felt that they were quite different as well. After about an hour of my word processing, I realized where I was stuck. AP was sharing a story of a belief. CK was sharing a story of a practice. But when we merge their stories together, we can read their words and believe: “Many Parts, But One Body…” And we can practice that belief by: “Doing Your Job…”
With this exploration and discovery, I have now discerned* that I could use that same spirit of these beliefs and practices, and apply them to our process of crafting a Life Hike Faith Community.** I truly believe we are on our way to becoming a community through these letters. And as with any community building process, merging beliefs and practices is an important step.
And now to finish this up, here is one of my new Life Hike Beliefs: “I believe that we are one body of readers, with an abundance of unique individuals, personalities and perspectives.” And in these letters I am promoting the Practice of: “Learning who we are individually… Learning who our neighbors are… With each of us Doing Our Part to come together as a community.”
So there you have it…
A Body Of Christ Community…. “Many Parts, But One Body.”
A Football Community… “Do Your Job.”
A Life Hike Community… “Do Your Part”
Three Individual Communities, One Common Spirit!
With Care and Gratitude, Dan
Postscript…
Re: *Discern… Partnering with God to create an action plan for revealing a discovery. (my personal definition)
Re: **Life Hike Faith Community… Although I’ve given this idea a lot of thought, I really had no intention of going down this path of conversation today. But as I was writing, these words just came out. As I reflected on what I wrote, I decided to leave it in the letter. But know, that I know, that this is a big conversation. And as we head down the road I will to do it justice… going into significant detail… once I figure out what the heck that detail is…
Re: The Kid… As promised, here’s a couple words, literally two words, describing my adventure with the Kid in my recent Quick Post… “Kid-ney Stone.” … Nuff said.
Next Up:“The Elderhood Trail” (Friday, 01/24/25. S1/L8)