Designed

Engineers have always impressed me. Their ability to see a problem and design a solution to improve life will occasionally make me stop and say, “Wow! That is ingenious!”

But imagine an engineer is tasked with designing a new type of car that is faster, safer, and more fuel efficient, but he decides to hitch a huge two-ton anchor to the back. It wouldn’t make sense, would it? Rather, you’d expect him to build the car with a lighter-yet-stronger type of metal or come up with a better battery that is lighter and lasts longer than current EV batteries on the market. You expect thoughtfulness in the design.

Holy Spirit Engineering

When God invented humans, He engineered their design brilliantly. For example, the hand is intricately woven to accomplish things like gripping, pointing, signaling, and caressing. The tongue is a mesmerizing network of taste buds that can differentiate between sweet, savory, salty, and sour. The ear might look funny, yet it has a remarkable ability to capture sound waves that can be interpreted by the brain. In other words, each part of the human body has been ingeniously and thoughtfully designed.

In 1 Corinthians 12:14-21 (part of our key passage for this One Body series), the Apostle Paul makes this same argument concerning the Body of Christ. Just as a foot is intentionally designed to do foot things, so a follower of Jesus is intentionally engineered by the Holy Spirit to do specific things. Some Christians are designed to teach, others to lead, some to serve, some to pray, some to counsel, some to heal, and more. (See 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 and Romans 12:3-8.)

This means at least two things:

1. If you follow Jesus, YOU are intentionally and brilliantly designed by the Holy Spirit to do something beautiful for God’s family.

2. Other followers of Jesus have also been intentionally and brilliantly designed to do something beautiful for God’s family – and it will likely be very different from your design!

These two points mean that if you are good at ‘ear’ things, do great ‘ear’ things, but don’t expect ‘mouth’ people to do exactly the same as you. Rather, let the ‘mouth’ people speak God’s word while you, as an ‘ear,’ listen to the pains of others and seek to help them find joy in Jesus. Likewise, if you are a ‘hand,’ do the best ‘hand’ things you can do as you labor for the church, but don’t expect ‘eye’ people to do ‘hand’ things with the same proficiency as you.

So celebrate your intentional design, for you are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). At the same time, celebrate the thoughtful design of your fellow Christ-follower, who is part of One Body with you.