Special Needs Living Akron/Canton- August 2022

Thoughts From The Ministry

Puzzle Perspective

BROUGHT TO YOU BY HAPPY PETERSON, DIRECTOR OF MINISTRIES AND AMY TROYER, DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL NEEDS MINISTRY AT THE CHAPEL GREEN

Amy Troyer

Happy Peterson

Have you ever put a puzzle together before? If you have, you know that each puzzle piece fits into another perfectly, and you cannot make the pieces fit into places they were not meant to be. Each piece has a specific place to help create the whole picture. Now, imagine if you were holding a puzzle piece and one side of the puzzle piece was pink, and the other was green. The pink half could represent things that are difficult for us or areas that we struggle with, and the green represents the areas that we are good at and the things we enjoy.

What would it look like if you had this puzzle piece in front of you and wrote your strengths on the green side and the things you struggle with on the pink side?

I am sure yours would look like mine, with a few strengths and struggles written on each half of the puzzle because each of us, disability or not, is made up of both pink and green. Psalm 139:13 says, “for you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

We were all created with strengths and weaknesses. Our creator does not make puzzle pieces that are all pink or all green. Just as puzzle pieces fit together to create a beautiful and complete picture, each of us is made to come alongside to support each other and create a beautiful picture to make up the body of Christ.

One of the beautiful things about the body of Christ is how we all work and fit together. When we realize that we have strengths and weaknesses, we realize how much we need each other. From that point, in humility, we have the freedom and ability to grow and learn together.

The apostle Paul gives us a clear look at how the body of Christ should work together by comparing it to a human body. Paul tells us that we are made up of many different parts (1 Corinthians 12) with many different functions. While some functions may seem more important than others, like our vision, all are vital.

I don’t typically give my kneecaps the respect they deserve. Can you imagine how funny it would be if our legs didn’t bend? Or what if they bent in the other direction?

In a very similar way, we can mess up the body of Christ. Pride is a primary culprit in sending us spinning off into a version of the church that does not reflect who Christ wants us to be. Look at two different scenarios that Paul gives us. 1 Corinthians 12:15-16, “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.”

And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. Here we have this false humility that claims, “Aw, shucks. I’m just not good enough to fit in with the rest of the crowd.” Imagine the silliness if my foot just ran off because it didn’t think itself worthy. I get it, I hide it in a sock and shoe, and sometimes it gets a little smelly, but I really need my feet. I need them both. When we have a family that says we don’t belong at this church because we just don’t fit here, we really miss out on the opportunity to support and bless them.

We miss out on the chance to grow and learn from them and with them. Our body gets robbed of the chance to stand on both feet and be who we are intended to be. If you’re the family that feels like you don’t belong, please know that we want you. We need you. We are incomplete without you.

Likewise, we see the other side of the coin in verse 21, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” We do a major disservice in the church when we exclude anyone from our midst. As the body of Christ, we need to make a concerted effort to find ourselves reaching into the hurting, lost, and disenfranchised. This is what makes us so completely different from the world. So, church people, take the time to see those around you. Take the time to learn what it would mean for them to become a part of your fellowship.

It may look a little different initially, but it keeps us functioning the way God intended.