Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Stop Limping When You're Not in Pain
What happens when we protect something that no longer needs protection? A young woman's ski trip to Whistler turned into a lesson about unity when her broken leg healed but her unnecessary limping continued. "When you limp," her rehabilitation nurse explained, "the rest of your body has to compensate." This powerful analogy frames today's meditation on Christian unity.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax and let me help you start your day right. Last winter there was some really good skiing here in British Columbia. The snow base was great and there was some decent weather along the way, so the ski hills were very busy. One of the most famous winter resorts here is a place called Whistler which has got skiing on a variety of mountains very close by.
Speaker 1:There was a young lady who had the opportunity to go up skiing with some friends for the weekend at Whistler her very first time there. She was all excited and she got herself some new clothes. She got her skis all waxed up and everything Off. She went with her friends up to Whistler to enjoy this fabulous weekend. They got there, they took the gondola up the hill, then they took the chair from the gondola up to the top of where they were going to ski and on the very first run down the hill this young lady broke her leg and just like that her great weekend with her friends was over.
Speaker 1:It took several weeks for her leg to heal up properly and then, once that process was done, she had to go back to rehab and in rehab they began to work that leg to try to get it to become stronger so she could use it properly again. She told the story of going into rehab one day and the nurse stopped and looked at her and said are you in pain? And the young lady said no, I'm not in pain. The nurse said well then, why are you limping? The young lady said well, I didn't really realize I was. I guess it's just what I've gotten used to. And the nurse said you need to realize that if your leg is not hurting you, you are hurting yourself by trying to protect it. When you limp, the rest of your body has to compensate. And you stress your hip, you stress your back, you stress your other leg, you stress all these other parts of your body because they are trying to compensate for what you are trying to protect.
Speaker 1:All the parts are meant to work together. It's wonderful that God has made our bodies so that all the parts need to work together to be able to make it function properly. But just like our bodies are built that way, christ also built his church that way. Do you know that in the New Testament there are over 30 verses that talk about the need for the body of Christ to be unified together? There's nothing that God wants more than to see his body, his family, his adopted children getting along and to be in unity?
Speaker 1:1 Corinthians 1.10 says I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. God has designed us to work together, and it's not this denomination against that denomination or this church against that church. God has given us a command to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our minds, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Speaker 1:In the world around us right now, we see constant division and strife, we see anger, we see violence happening around us because people can't get along. And God wants us to be examples of what it means to show love and to get along. Over in John 13, verse 35, jesus said your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Our love for each other will prove that we are his disciples.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we find it easier to love the world than we do to love our Christian brothers and sisters, and yet what God desires for us is that we come together in love and that we work with him to build his kingdom in this world. It's not a denominational kingdom, it's not a one church against the other kingdom. It's Christ's kingdom and he wants us to work together to build it. And we do that by showing love. And when we can't show love to one another, we're damaging the body. We're damaging the body of Christ and keeping it from functioning like it should, just like that young girl, when she was limping, was damaging the other parts of her body because she wasn't letting every part do the job that it was supposed to do.
Speaker 1:So this morning, my friends, I encourage us all to examine where we are today. Are we showing love to one another? Are we building one another up in Christ? Are we doing that just as much as we're showing love to the people around us, christ? Are we doing that just as much as we're showing love to the people around us? Because Jesus himself said that the world will know us as Christ's disciples when we show love to one another and we get along. So live in peace today, my friends. Show love to each other, encourage one another and have a great day. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today, and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on Starting Right, with Danny Mac.
