I've heard people say that they sometimes feel left out - whether it's in their own churches, in Christian Bible studies or youth groups, or even here at GCN.

Unfortunately, I've also heard people complain about others in the body of Christ - people whose views are different or whose methods seem strange.  We want to be like others, and we want others to be like us.

Yet somehow, the body of Christ is surprisingly diverse.  And that's just the way God wants it.  So as you think about not fitting in - or the other people who seem so different - read this passage.

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 (NIV)

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 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. 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. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

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!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 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, 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, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

What talents, experiences, or passions do you bring to the body?  Are you using them, or are you wishing you were a different part?