Affected by Our Environment

Last week I crafted an analogy using the Space Shuttle Challenger’s final mission and its unanticipated destruction in 1986. The analogy was a correlation between the body of Christ (its various parts and how it works) and the many parts that make up the body of a space shuttle.One part in particular, that led to cavernous depths of news articles were the now-infamous "O-rings" that connected the individual joints of the rocket boosters, located on the left and right side of the shuttle.  What's unique about the particular type of o-rings that were being used on the Challenger is how they reacted to the chain of events leading to the tragedy.

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The design of the rubber o-rings allowed them to expand when heat from the rockets began to affect them, thus sealing the joints even tighter, preventing leakage.  (Sort of like a "refined by fire" scenario, their environment made them stronger.)  However, the night before, extremely cold temperatures changed the "ideal" environment into one that was outside the "comfort zone" of the o-rings, and the next day, during lift-off, the o-rings failed to perform (expand) as expected. Some scientists desperately tried to justify their miscalculations by saying that there were a secondary set of o-rings in the event of a failure such as this.  However, their defense was rapidly shot down, as the o-rings had been labeled a "Criticality 1" part of the rocket.  That's the geekish way of saying to the o-rings, "nobody's got your back, dude." When the primary o-rings failed, so also did the secondary, and eventually the entire craft.

Now that I have your attention with such exciting scientific detail... (note wit), I need to get to the point: Sometimes as believers, we convince ourselves that we are not a "Criticality 1" part of the body of Christ.  We justify our exclusion when we're needed most, simply by convincing ourselves that there's a secondary person who can SURELY fill the gap if we choose to surrender to the pressures of an "uncomfortable" environment.  Much like the o-rings, though, when the environmental pressure is severe, we fail to realize that "nobody's got our back" on this one; the job was ours, and we did not do it.  We dropped the ball, and the impending rubble becomes the catastrophic result for our memoirs.

It's important for me to note at that moment that is was not because someone else failed to "cover" for me during an environmental beat-down, but because I (me, myself, and I, one single member of the body of Christ) thought no one will notice if I just detach myself temporarily; and then everything will continue functioning just as planned.  To the contrary, removing oneself from the place where God has put you and from the role in which you serve causes a diversion from His will, even if it is just temporary:

"But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired." - 1 Corinthians 12:18 (WEB)

I'm sure we've all heard our fill of devotions, sermons, lessons, and studies on "service," and sometimes, when it's coming from a staff pastor, it can seem like a guilt trip; but I sincerely want you to know that God has placed you JUST AS HE DESIRED!  To that end, I would like to say to each and every one of you: "thank you" - thank you for being right where God wants you!  Remain in Him, and know that He will be faithful through it all.