Je te donne toutes mes differences
Tous ces defaults qui sont autant de chances
On sera jamais des “standards”, des gens bien comme il faut
Je te donne ce que j’ai, ce que je vaux
-Jean Jacques Goldman
<I give you all my differences
All my faults …
…..
I can give you what I am, it’s what I’m (worth)>
Yeah, can’t even translate it properly, my sincere apologies on that, but felt
right for a theme this morning. French song, french artist. Part of this song
is in English. If you care to listen, here’s a link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH1cUXYWNTQ
I’m just going to spew out whatever comes up as needing prayer in the fellowship.
In other words, my apologies for how this may turn out.
Seriously though, listen to that song. It’s a friendship song between people singing in different languages. And maybe that fits us right now. We’re parts of the body of Christ – different parts. You can’t exactly convince yourself that a hand is an ear however much you know that both are important. And becoming two new fellowships with two different functions doesn’t mean that we’re not both part of the same body.
And any one part of a body can’t function alone. As an individual we might be a leader (maybe a neuron working between God and others), we might be a healer (hands perhaps), or even just a student (ears), but any of those structures alone is pretty pointless. Maybe that’s why we need fellowship. What kind of body
would we be, each alone, without tendons, blood vessels, or any of the numerous systems connecting us?
From another perspective, “Christ has no hands on earth but yours” (I should probably site that but I’m lazy). Christ, we are told, is the head. Hands, as anything in our body need a nervous system to be of use. They’d probably move around if you shot electricity through them, but that wouldn’t be terribly productive. We think a body is
bad without a foot to walk around on? People can survive that and do it well. I don’t know of any cases where someone survived without a head. We need God to carry out his work in our lives – simple as that. He doesn’t even need us cause he’s God and can do anything, but He lets us prepare his kingdom. Hey, it’s what we can give and he’ll guide
our hands so that even those of us who can’t draw stick figures can paint masterpieces.
To sum what I’ve written so far – we need God and each other to fulfill our individual purpose and enter God’s kingdom. That’s what we get out of fellowship and prayer. But what is it we give?
Hard to say. Sometimes I feel as if I’m an ear, a blood cell, a finger. How do I give when I don’t even know what I am. It’s a challenge really – we grow, change, go from follower to leader and in each moment there’s something different we can give – hope, a voice of ancestral pride, a shoulder to lean on (all in Goldman’s song). And we have
to give despite our imperfections. We can’t fix ourselves entirely and then give – we give all along.
I give you my ears to listen when you need to share joy or sorrow. I give you a smile to brighten a bad day. I give you my voice prayer, the work of my hands, time in abundance if never enough… I give you the love of a fellow human because in the end it’s something we can keep.
I guess there’s more. It’s a good deal more tangible than my writing sounds. But I wish to give you friendship (whatever that entails) and even if I’m breaking there’s something holding me together which I can share. I give it whether or not anyone else ever gives back.
And someday, although I don’t think this will happen until after I die, I want to know that
to God I have given all of me.
Amen
