There once was a man who had a strange dream in which his hands, feet, mouth, and brain all began to rebel against his stomach.
“You good-for-nothing deadbeat!” the hands shouted. “We work all day long, sawing, hammering, lifting and carrying. By nightfall we’re covered with blisters and scratches, our joints ache, and we’re covered with dirt. Meanwhile, all you do is just sit around, hogging all of the food.”
“We agree!” cried the feet. “Think how sore we get, walking back and forth all day; moving and supporting this whole body, including you. And what do you do? You just stuff yourself full, you greedy pig, making you that much heavier for us to carry you about.”
“That’s right!” the mouth joined in. “Where do you think all that food you love comes from? I’m the one who has to chew it all up, and as soon as I finish you suck it all down for yourself. That’s unfair and I’ve had enough of your laziness!”
“Yeah, what about me?” complained the brain. “Do you think it’s easy being up here, having to think about where your next meal is coming from? And yet I get nothing at all for all my pain and effort.”
The stomach, bore all this verbal abuse, but said nothing at all in reply.
“I have an idea,” the brain exclaimed. “Let’s all rebel against this lazy, useless belly and stop working for it.”
“Superb idea!” all of the other members and organs responded. “We’ll teach you how important we are, you pig. Then maybe you’ll do a little work of your own.”
So they all stopped working. The hands refused to do any lifting or carrying. The feet refused to walk. The mouth promised not to chew or swallow a single bite of food. And the brain swore it would not come up with any new or bright ideas. At first the stomach growled a bit, as it always did when it was hungry. But after a while it quieted and remained silent.
Then, to the dreaming man’s surprise, he found that he could no longer walk. He also could not grasp anything with his hands. He couldn’t even open up his mouth. He also began to feel rather ill.
The dream seemed to go on for several days. As each day passed, the man began to feel worse and worse. “This rebellion had better not last much longer,” he thought to himself, “or I will surely starve to death.”
Meanwhile, the man’s hands, feet, mouth, and brain just lay there, getting weaker and weaker. At first they roused themselves just enough to taunt the stomach every once in a while, but before long they didn’t even have enough energy to do that.
Finally the man heard a faint voice coming from the direction of his feet.
“It could be that we were wrong,” they were saying. “We’re now thinking that maybe the stomach might have been working in his own way all along.”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” murmured the brain. “While it is true that he always gets all of the food, I’m beginning to understand that all along he’s been sending most of it right back to us. I’m famished. We need to tell the stomach that we were wrong and apologize. I say we admit our error and tell him so right now. I think we should tell him that we now know that he has just as much work to do as our body’s hands, feet, brain and teeth.” They all agreed and told the stomach of their misjudgment.
“Now let’s all get back to work,” they all cried together. And suddenly the man awoke.
To his relief, he discovered his feet could walk again. His hands could grasp, his mouth could chew, and his brain could now think clearly. He immediately began to feel much better.
“Well, there’s a lesson for me,” he pondered as he filled his stomach at breakfast. “Either we all work together, or nothing works at all.”
Now the body is not a single part, but many…The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.” Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that here be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all parts share its joy.
(1 Corinthians 12:14-26)
Have an AWE-full weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacque’