Weak, but Indispensable!

I am inept at sports that involve a ball.  I have an eye condition that was originally identified by the P.E. teacher.  She knew there had to be some physical issue.  No one could have such terrible depth perception unless there was something wrong.  

My worst elementary school nightmare repeated itself every time we were forced to play basketball, volleyball, t-ball or any other game whose name ends in ball.  The two best kids were named team captains and they took turns choosing which of the other kids would be on their team.  I started to sweat right away.  The tall, strong, fast, athletic kids were chosen one by one.  Then the average, but not outstanding kids were chosen.  That left me and the one or two other uncoordinated, slow, or fat kids waiting to be picked.  Finally the other losers were reluctantly chosen and some unlucky team was stuck with me.  No one ever wanted me.  Why would they?  I was not an asset to the team.  In fact, try as I did to stay out of the way, I usually found a way to help my team lose.  It is still that way.  My family tries to be nice about it, but nobody, except my tenderhearted self-sacrificing husband, ever really wants me to play on their team, even when we are playing Wii with virtual balls.  I am pretty sure that I have never been indispensable to my team in any sport that involves a ball.

Fortunately for me, after elementary school, a person can pretty much avoid playing with balls if they try hard enough.

There are other kinds of weakness, though.  A few years into my first marriage, my world fell apart.  I was airlifted out of my chosen role as perfect wife and mother in the perfect Christian home and deposited into a barren desert world of broken family.  Once again I found myself to be the weakest.  All of my loudly spoken formulas for life and ideas about making life work were smashed. I felt like my failed marriage made me a detriment to my Christian brothers and sisters, kind of a loser on the team. I offered to resign from the board of the ministry where I served.

Fortunately for me, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a body and not like a sports team.

I have read 1 Corinthians 12 about how Christians of every race and rank make up one body many times.  Somehow I never really thought about the wonderful little verse sandwiched in the middle of the passage though.

On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.  I Corinthians 12:22

The human body has prominent, visible parts, and hidden interior parts.  It has beautiful parts and not so beautiful parts, but it doesn't have any spare parts.  Likewise, the body of Christ doesn't have a single unnecessary part.  The Bible calls me "indispensable".  Each of us, no matter what our story, is needed in the body of Christ.  Weak or strong, as long as I am connected to Jesus, the head, I am indispensable.