There is a great painter from long ago, John Constable. He always painted what he saw and never what he thought others would want to paint – he was always true to himself.
He painted the English countryside in a way so convincing that once a fellow painter was seen to be so engrossed in one of Constable’s paintings of a rainy day in the English countryside that after a long while the engrossed painter opened his umbrella. Constable never departed from whom God made him to be.There is a lesson here for the Body of Christ. We though many are yet one in Christ, individually members one of another. But as a hand and an ear are a part of the same body, an ear should never set out to be a hand nor a hand to be an ear. It won’t work. God’s Gospel does not ever change. In the constancy of Constable, we must stay true to the Truth of Jesus Christ. We are each gifted with certain personalities and talents and life experiences. However, each of us is uniquely equipped to share the truth and the power of God and the Word of God to a dead and dying world. I should not try to be you, nor you try to be someone you admire. Be yourself in Christ Jesus. God will work in you and me and through us to accomplish his will. We have to put ourselves out there in exactly the way God has created us to be. (I wrote this based on a similar thought expressed in an essay by F W Bore ham. I highly recommend his writings to all.)