Ouch My Toe

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

1 Corinthians 12:14-16 (NIV1984)

 ¹⁴ Now the body is not made up 
of one part but of many.  
¹⁵ If the foot should say, 
“Because I am not a hand, 
I do not belong to the body,
” it would not for that reason 
cease to be part of the body. 
¹⁶ And if the ear should say, 
“Because I am not an eye, 
I do not belong to the body,” 
it would not for that reason 
cease to be part of the body. 



I don't think about my toes very often. They do their job of supporting my body and allowing me to walk but I don't pay a lot of attention to them other then to trim my toe nails from time to time. They don't even cross my thoughts unless there is a problem. If they are cold, I notice and will do something to warm them up. So you must be wondering why, I am writing about my toes today?


My left foot middle toe was fine when I went to bed last night and when I got up this morning it feels as if I kicked a brick wall. Maybe I did kick the wall while I was sleeping. My husband will read this and laugh and be glad he was working and not in bed being kicked by me. I don't remember kicking anything but my point is that we can take things for granted when everything is working. When something hurts it becomes a part of your thoughts. You wonder what you did to hurt it, you wonder what can I do to fix it. In general you are aware of it until it stops hurting.

There are those who serve in the body of Christ that go largely un-noticed unless something goes wrong. Take for example the tec folks who run sound or lights or video for your church service.
You probably have no idea who's even back there serving unless your worship is interrupted by a bit of audio feed back, or glitch in the video, or those darn typos on a song slides. I spend a lot of time with the tec team and I am very thankful for all their hard work. Most people have no idea how much stress that team can be under to make the survice run smoothly. I would encourage you to remember to pray for those folks. I train the folks that serve in that capacity to strive to be un-noticed.  Oswald Chambers writes "It takes Almighty God Incarnate in us to do the meanest duty to the glory of God. It takes God's Spirit in us to make us so absolutely humanly His that we are utterly unnoticeable."

So I am thanking God for my toe. I am sorry that it hurts and I am trying to help it feel better.  I in yesterdays post that I had a particularly difficult Sunday. I was trying to get myself pulled back together before the servie and I was sitting in the prayer loft praying. There was a wonderful friend who must have noticed that I was not myself. He did not need to ask what my deal was but simply put his hand on my head and silently prayed for me. That meant a lot to me. On my good days I try to be aware of the people around me who are struggling and to reach out to them and pray for them, or encourage them. Even in my mess that day I did pull it together to do my jobs and did pray with some people. I am always surprised when God uses me in spite of my own internal mess. There are many days that God uses my own brokenness to connect with the need of some person who comes for prayer in ways that amaze me. Its almost like what I have gone through and wrestled with during the week has prepared me to be able to know how to pray.  My point here is not - Oh look at Margot she is sooooooo spiritual. My point is that God wants to use you where you are. If we can get beyond our selves to see the needs of others around us God will use even our brokenness to touch others. I have noticed when I am in such a condition and I push beyond my own pain and begin praying for someone else that as God pours His Spirit through me to that other person that He also does a work of healing in me as well in that moment. I can't begin to tell you how often it happens that the people God brings to me to pray for are dealing with stuff that I have had to deal with during the week. It is still fresh and raw and they always seem surprised that I understand how to pray for them. I simply pray what God puts on my heart as I lay my hands on them. I don't try to analize or figure it out - I just go with it and trust the Holy Spirit. I pray for them how I would want to be prayed for.

I think it is also the mercy of God that on a day when I was struggling that someone came up to me after the service and thanked me for praying for people and made a point to tell me how I was hearing from God because I had prayed very specifically what those people had needed with out knowing anything about their situation. This person had heard several of his friends share about how God had used me to touch them and made a point to come and thank and encourge me. That was a gift and a blessing to me because I was feeling so messed up at that point. I needed encouraged in that moment.  To know that God still can use us even when we look at ourselves and feel like we are a mess is humbling and amazing. Its when I know that its not my own strength or togetherness that matters but God's Spirit working in and through me. Kent Henry once said that "we are carriers and couriers of God's presence". We are the pitcher from which living water is poured out to the thirsty.

I guess I have gotten side tracked a bit and have gone from toes to prayer. In some ways not that far because whatever your gift may happen to be - even if it goes largely unnoticed you are a vital and needed part of the body of Christ. Your gifts may be very different than mine but yours are needed and just like me you may have a bad day where you don't feel like you have much to offer. God can use you on those days too. On those hard days, I try not to spin out of control and I do my best to press into Gods presence to allow Him to minister to me. I don't always get myself back on track sometimes I need others in the body to reach out to me. To pray for me, or to hold my feet to the fire and remind me to not put of dealing with things that need dealt with. I need people to share with me that God has used me to touch thier lives. I often have no clue the work that God does in someones life or how something I have said or written has spurred someone on to take a step of faith, or to strive to know Jesus more.  I am generally not to worried about the out come, I leave that up to God and work on being obedient and faithful to use the gifts that God has given me to use. We all need to be encouraged, and to know that what we are doing by faith is making an differene.

I am finding in my journey to be more open and transparant that there are times when I need to stop trying to hold it all together and reach out to others in the body and allow them to use thier gifts to minister to me. It is so much easer to be on the giving out side of things for me and much harder to admit my own need. I am very thankful for the people in my life that are there for me on those hard days. I am thankful for my kids who come and snuggle near me on the couch, and my husband who trys to stay out of my way and allows me to process through stuff, for friends who pray. I am thankful for those who tell me I need to let them know when I'm in trouble, that I can call them for prayer even if it is in the middle of the night. I am thankful for those who see through me and can tell in an instant that something is wrong. I am thankful for my pastor who tells me I don't know what to tell you Margot but I'll pray. These are all gifts of Gods grace, and people allowing the love and compassion of Jesus to flow through them. It is a beautiful thing to be touched by Jesus through the body of Christ.

So I am thankful for the hands and feet, the ears and the eyes, and the mouths and all the amazing ways that God pours out His love through His people.  Most churches are not purfect - they all have problems because they are made up of people with problems. We bump and rub the rough edges off of each other. Just like families need to agree to work things out, so do churches of people need to decide that we won't just leave and go somewhere else but we will work through our issues and support and be there for each other. It is when the church or a family begins to function and value each other that people on the outside begin to know we are Christians by our love.

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
I pray for the hurting toes in the body of Christ. I pray that you will send hands to care for them. I pray for those who are eyes to see, that they would step up and be watchmen on the walls. I pray for the ears to be listening to what the Spirit is saying and to have the courage to tell the body, for mouths that would speaks the truth in love. I pray that whatever part we may each have to play that we would remember to value each other and to be thankful that God has brought us together for His plans and purposes.

The 3 Scripts

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

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1 Corinthians 9:24

Do you not know that in a race 

all the runners run, 

but only one gets the prize?  

Run in such a way 

as to get the prize.

I've been thinking through a question I read this morning in one of my coaching books. Here's the senario. Steven Spielberg has heard about your story and wants to do a full feature move about your life. So he is sending out 3 writers. The first writer will tell your story and how it will play out if you just keep doing what you are currently doing. The second writer will tell how your story spins out because you made one significant change (you meet a new person or move to a new place kind of change). The third writer tells your story from the vantage point of you becoming the person you've always wanted to be, doing the things you've always wanted to do.

So for me my first stop on this journey was to realize that the story is never about the supporting characters. To realize that I have trouble seeing myself in anything but a supporting role and to discover why. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with playing a supporting part. I suppose that's fine if that is truly what God has for you to be. But what if... I'm stuck there because I never considered trying out for a lead part? Honestly for me I've been content to work mostly behind the scenes on the make up or painting the scenery or doing the tech work.  How many movies are made about the dolligrip or the first assistant. Clearly they are important, they do get their names in the rolling credits that hardly anyone reads except maybe their mom.

I'm having to think about this because not too many months back I finally got free from some chains that had kept me bound for many years. So I have been evaluating my life in light of that new found freedom and trying to sort out what I'm going to do with it. So this three scripts thing is a great tool for me to think about what I want and what I will need to do to get there.  I've written about getting free from these chains in other posts so I won't repeat that here. I had owned the idea that I was not ever enough. I've spent a lot of time in the shadows of others because I just could not see myself as anything other than a supporting character.

Anyway Jesus helped some other folks re-write their stories. You remember Saul on his way to stone and murder those who were challenging the religious statutes quo of the day. On the road he encounters a bright light from heaven that blinds him. He hears a voice saying Saul Saul,  why do you persecute me? You can read the story in Acts 9. You'll find that Jesus gave him a whole new story.

There's another story about a women Jesus meets at a well. She can't even go to the well during the customary times. Her life is an embarrassment to herself and others after all she's had five husbands and the man she is living with is not her husband. That might fly in our culture but that did not work back then. You can read her story in John 4. Next thing you see her doing is proclaiming to the whole town about this amazing person she met at the well.

There was the woman caught in adultery. Jesus writes in the sand and her accusers walk away. She got a new story. Theres the lame man at the beautiful gate. Peter and John on their way to pray help him rewrite his story and its started with 'silver and gold I have not but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus rise up and walk."  Look at the disciples, they go from fishermen, tax collectors and pretty ordinary guys to become the leaders of this new thing called back then "The Way" that we now call Christianity.

Maybe its time for you and I to take a look at a new script. Thats what Jesus wants to do for all of us. Do you want script one, script two or the amazing script number three?  So if Jesus is offering us all the choice of scripts why are so many stuck in the land of ordinary.  I will remind you of the story Jesus told in Matthew 13 called the Parable of the Sower. “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹ He who has ears, let him hear.”

In every case the seed was good and had great potential. Lets say you are the seed and the scripts are the ground of your life. There are things written into each script that set the limits on what you are willing to allow the Lord to achieve in your life. In script number one the cares of day to day life are eating up your seed. You are running around putting out fires. You may not have a very clear idea of what you want or if you do there are obstacles that stand in the way. Maybe its the same old tired excuses or just simply not seeing yourself playing any other part than the one you currently possess.   In script number two, you make that one change and you are so excited only to find out that no matter who you are with or where you are, life is still full of challenges. Ugh you chose to change the circumstances when what needed changed was you.  Script number three is the one where you allow Jesus to come in and transform you. To redefine what is possible. It will take change and work to play that role. You'll have to stop blaming everyone else and take responsibility to begin today to make small but significant changes. One step of faith after another towards the vision that God wants to help you to see and move towards. 

Writing these devotionals is a daily step of faith for me. In script three for me I can see myself in the part of inspirational speaker, writer, life coach and artist. Yikes its a lead role. It feels really big kinda scary. I am having to learn to dream bigger.  I'm having to allow the Lord to challenge my old tired ways of thinking.  The first step was to get free of those chains of self doubt and unbelief. I had to then realize I have something of value to say.  I've had to get past my fears of being transparent and open and to begin to let people see the stuff the Lord has been building in me all these years as I have worked in the shadows of others. I know I am a work in progress and I know the script writers are before me as they now stand before you. What will you choose? 


Our verse today says all the runners run but only one gets the prize. 
Run in such a way as to get the prize.
Do you even know there is a race? Perhaps are aware of the race but you are content to sit in the stands and cheer the runners who have decided to run. What if you got up out of the bleachers and put on some shoes and headed for the track. What if you began to train and work with a coach. What if you decided to run. What if you decided to not just run but to compete for the prize. What if you got to the place where you believed you could win?  What if you won?  The good news is the race is your very own and you are competing against the you in the various scripts. The bigger question is what kind of race do you want to run?

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Forgive us for limiting your plans in our lives. Forgive us for looking at the circumstances, our flaw, failures and weakness and thinking that has anything to do with your equations. You who have begun a good work in us are faithful to complete it. Lord help us to begin to think about how you might want to rewrite our story for you glory. Help us dream bigger and have the courage to begin to take steps of faith towards that dream. Lord walk with us every step of the way. With you all things are possible.

Bridges of Growth

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

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1 Corinthians 12:4-6  

There are different kinds of gifts, 
but the same Spirit.  
⁵ There are different kinds of service, 
but the same Lord. 
⁶ There are different kinds of working, 
but the same God works 
all of them in all men. 

I was given a lovely inspirational book on Courage and Inner Strength by a friend for my birthday. I have been enjoying reading through the collection of quotes and poems.  One spoke of the times when we feel lost and like the world is collapsing all around us, as being like bridges of growth. In those times we have no idea how we will make it from moment to moment. Yet somehow we do make it through that day and the next day and the next and before we know it we are looking back and we realize that we have grown.

I find that more and more I am thankful for the challenges that come my way. Not that I go out looking for them and I do my best not to manufacture problems. I do sometimes feel like I live in the land of missfit toys. So many of the people around me are struggling with mental illness, or the effects of brain injuries, or emotional trauma, or poverty of some sort. I seem to have swallowed a magnet that draws people who are broken and hurting and needing someone to believe in them. I must have at some point traded up to a bigger magnet because for many years people said I had swallowed a kid magnet and was always ministering to kids and teens. I'm not sure when it changed but I look around and I know that it has changed. I think many of the things I have been through have been bridges for growth that have given me greater compassion.

A wise man once said, "whatever came to me, I looked on as God's gift for some special purpose. If it was a difficulty, I knew He gave it to me to struggle with, to strengthen my mind and my faith." That idea has sweetened and helped me all of my life. ~ Anonymous 

The kid magnet thing I spoke of earlier. During that season of my life I was barren and it seemed that having children was not in God's play book for me. For a while I thought it was God punishing me for the promiscuity of my youth. I finally got over that and was able to receive God's forgiveness. It was still 15 years before God would give me children of my own. In those years my life was very rich with children.  Isaiah 54:1 Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD.  In that season I sang and sang and I got to minister to hundreds of children. The season has changed and I think it started with a prayer that went something like this. I was reading the book of Acts and my prayer began to be I want to live a life like the believers in the book of acts. I want to see God do mighty miracles in peoples lives. I don't just want normal American church where folks go to be entertained. I want to be in the middle of people who are desperate for God. Who know they can't make it with out Him. I want to be in the middle of people who like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who would say in the face of death "¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  I want to be around people who believe that God can and will deliver them. Who even if he does not will serve and worship him to their final breath.
I suppose one should be careful what they ask God for, I am however privileged to walk daily among such a people. God has answered that prayer and made me ambassador in the land of missfit and broken people. I suppose I fit right in because God has patched me back together so many times that I have lost count. In that land I am inspired by people of tremendous faith and courage. These folks are overcoming things that are not for the faint of heart. I have found that in our brokenness that we need each other more than people do who are not so broken. We become living stones in a spiritual house. 
A bit more from the passage in 1 Corinthians 12  ²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 

I guess my point of this devotional is that the things you are facing can be bridges of growth in you life and you don't have to travel alone.  When you are broken you quickly realize that you need others and surprisingly others need you and I think that God is pleased when we begin to work together to accomplish His purposes. We each come to the table with something to offer and much to gain.

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Help us to walk across the bridges of growth that you have placed in our lives. Lord help us to reach out to the people around us. Help us to not look upon our own brokenness in despair thinking we are of no value. Help us to realize that God is pleased when we bear with one another in our weakness. When we are weak He is strong. We are your hands and feet so help us realize that I may be the hands and while another may be the feet and until we learn work and walk together we sit like the lame man at the healing pool in John 5 waitng for our healing. When perhaps our healing is found in learning to depend on each other.