One Body, Many Parts by Mary G. Scro

Can you imagine what life would be like if you had 4 eyes but no nose or mouth? Or two hearts but no lungs?

Right, you’d not be able to survive.

That describes my writer’s journey. My passion is to write and speak – to share what God shows me. But hey, I can figure out all this other stuff, and “do it myself” so that it’s exactly what I want.

Worn out by my arrogant striving, I could not understand why I could not make it work.

I did not survive.

In the spring of 2016, at the Lord’s direction I laid down writing, blogging, or anything related to focus on other life priorities. First of this year, God placed me on the Potter’s wheel to squish me, mold me, and lop off excess junk.

Fun time? NOT!

Fruitful time? ABSOLUTELY!

In August, I received notice about the Ohio Christian Writers Conference (OCWC) in November. I felt the Lord’s familiar nudge but didn’t want to go. I knew the Lord’s voice, though, so I went.

While at the conference I had a dream. A young girl, 9-10 years old, was supposed to be cleaning my house. I went into the bedroom to check on her and found her crawling into bed.

“What are you doing??? Why aren’t you cleaning – get up!”

She stopped, but didn’t say a word. I went over to her and noticed she had bruises on her arms, and she looked frail and tired. Wow, she must have been abused, who did this to her? Filled with compassion, I wrapped my arms around her and then put her in bed.

“After you rest, you can finish your cleaning.”

When I got out of the bedroom, 2 other women bustled about, cleaning my house. One did laundry and the other moved about in the bathroom.

“HEY, what are you doing? That’s the girl’s job, get out! And by the way, did you give her all those bruises?”

They completely ignored me. Didn’t they know how unwelcome they were?

My memory of the rest of the dream blurs into a confusing mess of more unwanted people trying to get into my house, and me trying to keep them out.

As I pondered the dream, the Lord showed me that the little girl was ME! The bruised and weary part of me from trying to do what I am not equipped to do. The unwilling “me” – unwilling to pursue help from others, unwilling to trust the gifts in others, unwilling to give up control. The arrogant and broken “me”. The spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically weary “me” from trying to be and do what God did not call me to be or do.

OH MY!

Thankfully God is merciful, and full of second chances! At the OCWC I met – and for the first time, really appreciated – many wonderfully gifted and godly people, writers and others called to work with writers. Together we form a community, a family, and yes, a body – one body, many parts: writers, agents, editors, designers, and more. Share on X And we join as our part of the overall body of Christ, whose mission is to glorify God by being who He created us to be; nothing more, nothing less. One body, many parts.

I’m thankful beyond words to be a part of this body; and of His body. I’m thankful God humbled me in such an amazingly personal way. Now I can stop trying to be a leg when God called me to be a mouth. And I’m thankful for and looking forward to working with the other beautiful and God-gifted parts of the body!

But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.  (1 Corinthians 12:18-20, NIV)

(Read the full passage of 1 Corinthians 12:12-28 in The Message version here.)