Hands, Feet or Lungs?

Lately I have been thinking a lot about my role in God's kingdom.

The bible says that "just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. " Romans 12:4-8

While at times I feel like I know exactly what my role is, more often I stop and wonder if I really have an essential function in the body.

Do I have gifts?
What are they?
Am I the hands, feet or the lungs in this amazing body of Christ?
How do I find out?

There are times when I feel like I am not doing anything worthwhile. After all, I have never been on a mission trip to a foreign country, I am not popular in my church and most kids in the Sunday school program cannot pronounce my name. I don't know that I have made a life changing difference in any one's life and maybe I am just not doing what I was created to do.

These thoughts peek into my head from time to time and I start thinking that my works and deeds are nothing but a waste.

With this mind set, I read a chapter of The Hole in Our Gospel, where the author quotes a wonderful message written by N. T. Wright in Surprised by Hope. This is how N. T. Wright describes our role in God's plan:

"But what we can and must do in the present if we are obedient to the gospel, if we are following Jesus, and if we are indwelt, energized, and directed by the Spirit, is to build for the kingdom. This brings us back to I Corinthians 15:58 once more: what you do in the Lord is not in vain. You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that's about to roll over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that's shortly going to be thrown in the fire. You are not planting roses in a garden that's about to be dug up for a building site. You are - strange though it may seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection itself - accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God's new world. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one's fellow human beings and for that matter one's fellow nonhuman creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world - all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make. That is the logic of the mission of God."

These words have encouraged me in the past couple of days! As I continue my journey to find my place in the kingdom of God, it is refreshing to know that nothing is a waste - nothing that is done in the Lord is in vain.