Affected

“We are all connected,  all affected.  No act is solo and no story goes alone.”

Loren Thornburg

I saw it with the glass that broke on the floor.  It wasn’t just the glass that was affected, but the broken pieces went all over the floor, much farther than you might have expected.  I was reminded again when the piece of trash blew onto my balcony:  What we do affects others.  Someone else’s trash blew into my life.  Somehow we think we are a stand alone, capable of operating independently of others.  What we miss is that even in our best attempts to function this way our actions are affecting far more people than we realize.  When we don’t deal with the hurts and pains of our lives they become junk blowing into other people.  We think that no one sees it.  It seems like it doesn’t matter, it’s our own life and we can do whatever we want.  The problem with that thinking is your life interacts with other lives and every one that interacts with you is affected by your choices one way or another.  You are affecting people.  What kind of affect are you having?

“The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church; every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t.  If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing.  If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.”

1 Corinthians 12:25-26

I love and struggle with this design where every part is involved and dependent on the other parts.  I like the good part that we all flourish when one part flourishes, I just don’t like the hard part that when one part is hurt, every part is involved with it.  Our own bodies show this clearly.  If you have a bad stomach ache, it impacts more than just your stomach, but it becomes hard to think, function and enjoy life.  Our bodies, our community, the church was designed to function in dependency on one another.  It is a beautiful thing when lived out well.  This starts with knowing and accepting that we are need each other (whether we like it or not).  It continues in walking with others in their hurts and victories and letting others do the same.  Often times I think I am sparing people by not “burdening” them with my pain, but really I am “burdening” them by not letting them into that place.  Every part is affected.  Let’s live like it.