Eye-Hand Coordination
Thursday, June 21st, 2007
his evening, on my way to the evening performance of the latest show I’m music directing, I caught a brief snippet of a sermon by the late Adrian Rogers on the radio. He was talking about various spiritual gifts in the body of Christ.
He said something to the effect that certain gifts are more suited for certain types of ministry. Using the same body metaphor that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians, he talked about his own hand and eye. He said that the eye is not suited for picking up a pen, nor is the hand suited for looking at something.
So when he needs to look at something, the hand needs to submit to the eye. And when he needs to write something, the eye must submit to the hand.
It got me thinking about this. A lot of times when we talk about different spiritual gifts, we seem to speak of them as if they are separate. They are disjointed.
But thinking of the eye and the hand in Dr. Roger’s comments made me think of the phrase “eye-hand coordination”. (At this point, I think I’m departing from the original statements by Dr. Rogers and his main point.)
An activity like catching a ball involves the eye and the hand working together. The eye can do some of the work needed, but it can’t catch the ball on its own (or if it does try to, there will be some painful injuries resulting!). Likewise, the hand can do the physical work of catching the ball, but it can’t analyze the situation to know where to place itself in order to do that.
How well are we working with others in the body of Christ? It’s not enough to appreciate the different gifts. It’s not even enough to say, “Well, I’m glad they’re doing their job because I can’t do it.” There is, in my opinion, a point of healthy organic life in the body of Christ wherein the particular gifts work together to accomplish one purpose.
From this standpoint, it seems obviously essential that Jesus be the head of the body like he is supposed to be. Without him directing the activities and movements of the body, the actions of the various parts are pretty meaningless.
Until next time,
steve 
