Weekly Devotion

October 06 2020

Devotional for the week of October 5-11:
“3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you
ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has
assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function,
5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have
gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in
ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in
diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”

-Romans 12:3-8, NRSV

These past few weeks have felt amazing haven’t they? The nip in the air is a welcome reprieve from the
heat we have faced these past few months. But more than just the temperature, it feels like a page may
be turning on what has been a challenging season. Church. Family. Community. Self. Not one part of
our lives has been safe from the journey we have been on, so maybe a seasonal shift will allow us a
chance to recenter.

One of my family's rights of passage in Autumn is that first pot of chili. Chili is one of those dishes that
every family has a different recipe: they can come in many shades of red, white, or even green (with
tomatillos), they can be spicy or mild, they can be eaten with rice, chips, potatoes, or even pasta (Skyline
chili for our northern folks). There is no one way to make chili. And, to be fair, our bowl of chili often has
less to do with a recipe and more to do with what we have in the pantry.

Spirituality in our communities is not so different, is it? We want to find the perfect recipe for faith and
church, but to summarize Paul in the above scripture, “cook with what you have in the pantry.” From the
Pulpit to the Pew, we all hear the ways we could fix the church, if only we had: more young people, more
money, more space, more faith. If we keep waiting on what we do not have, we will not utilize what God
has already given us. Paul reminds us we all have a “measure of faith,” and we all have a place of
purpose.

To go back to the cooking illustration, we are all important ingredients in an amazing creation. A good
cook knows they have to be adaptable to utilize what they have. Much like a recipe, we can get so hung
up on a vision that we forget the very reason we do all this in the first place: Discipleship.
Some thoughts as we close our time of devotion:

● How are utilizing the gifts in our communities?
● What is our church’s shared vision?
● How are we discipling one another?
Prayer:
“Lord, help our church to stop focusing on what we don’t have and leaning in to what we do. You have
given all of us a measure of faith and an ability to work together. Help us to see one another’s gifts that
we may come together for your kingdom. Amen.”