Here's an excerpt:

Alienation

God put our bodies together in such a way that even the parts that seem the least important are valuable. He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly, with each part caring about the others (1 Corinthians 12:24b-25).

Jason is well-connected: cell phone, iPhone, pager, email and Instant Messaging. Plus, he has hundreds of "friends" on his MySpace and Facebook pages. And yet this twenty-something feels desperately alone and dis-connected. Futurist Alan Toffler warned that the higher the technology, the higher the need for touch. Others have warned that the online "community" of Web 2.0 is an "artificial intimacy," devoid of real-life relationships.

There's still one place to find genuine community—and it's not Starbucks. The Apostle Paul wrote nearly two thousand years ago that we can find our need for connection and intimacy in the Body of Christ: the church.

Unfortunately what often breaks connections in the church is a sense of inferiority to others:

Our bodies don't have just one part. They have many parts. Suppose a foot says, "I'm not a hand, and so I'm not part of the body." Wouldn't the foot still belong to the body? Or suppose an ear says, "I'm not an eye, and so I'm not part of the body." Wouldn't the ear still belong to the body? If our bodies were only an eye, we couldn't hear a thing. And if they were only an ear, we couldn't smell a thing. But God has put all parts of our body together in the way that he decided is best (1 Corinthians 12:14-18).

Feet don't get a lot of star treatment, but you're not going very far without them!

There are also a few who break connections because they think they don't need others or are better than others:

That's why the eyes cannot say they don't need the hands. That's also why the head cannot say it doesn't need the feet. In fact, we cannot get along without the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest. We take special care to dress up some parts of our bodies. We are modest about our personal parts, but we don't have to be modest about other parts. (1 Corinthians 12:21-24).

There's nothing wrong with "online" relationships. Just sure you have some solid "offline" relationships as well.

Think about it
• What keep you from fully connecting with others?
• What uniqueness do you bring to the church—the Body of Christ?
• How can you use your strengths to build up those who are weak? How can stronger believers build you up?



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