Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ… Ephesians 3:13

Have you ever taken a personality test?  Perhaps you learned that you were a solitude seeking introvert or a people pleasing extrovert!  Ever feel like someone else’s personality type is somehow better than yours?

Elizabeth Sherril told an old story from Eastern Europe. “Zuysa was the village rabbi, wise, kind and beloved, who worried, nonetheless, that he might have failed to observe some commandment.  He went to a mountaintop to ask God what more he needed to do. At the gate of heaven, ‘Zuysa,’ he heard God answer, ‘I won’t ask you why you didn’t give more to the poor, or fast more often or memorize more Scripture.  I will only ask you one question.  Why weren’t you Zuysa?'”[1]

Zuysa’s story was in Sherril’s mind, she said, when she read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. “When he urges them to reach “the whole measure of the fullness of Christ,”

he was suggesting that this can’t be done alone. “Paul was addressing Christ’s Body, that Body with ‘many members,’ no two alike. Each member with its special role, its part in the fullness of Christ that no one else can supply.”[2]

God gave us each different giftings because He desires you and I each to star in the roles He wrote uniquely just for us. Yes, we’re to operate together in unity, “But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same,” paraphrases The Message, “Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift” (Ephesians 4:3-7 The Message).

God calls us to be the one thing that we are each perfectly suited to be: ourselves. Let’s be ourselves…together!

[1] Sherrill, Elizabeth. “Entrance Exam.” All the Way to Heaven, Fleming H. Revell, Grand Rapids, MI, 2002, p.145.

[2] Ibid.