If Only That Foot Had Ears

(1Corinthians 9:27 ISV) No, I keep on disciplining my body, making it serve me so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified.

One reason Paul wrote this passage was to define the governmental order of the makeup of man which is body, soul and spirit. It is clear that the body serves the mind and the mind serves the spirit and the spirit serves the Lord.

When that order is reversed it allows the lust of the flesh to take over, which in turn pollutes the mind. When the mind is polluted then that allows gluttony, alcoholism, drugs, pornography and even anger and rage to take root.

The body is nothing more than a servant because it has no reasoning ability. This is why Paul used the phrase, “making it serve me.” In other words, the body is a slave to its master which is the mind and the mind is subservient to the spirit and the spirit is subject to God.

There are two reasons I am attempting to establish this point. The first reason is because I feel that there are so many people today who are having a hard time because they are governmentally out of order. In other words their ruling is upside down which is a set up for failure.

The other reason is because of a story I heard that will forever have an impact on my life. My good neighbor of thirty five years walked over to my house today and shared this story because his heart was clearly moved by it.

Only minutes earlier a dear friend of his with whom he had worked with for many years had just called and shared this heart wrenching story.

This story is about a little eight year old girl name Marlee. She had cancer in her foot and the doctors had just removed Marlee’s little foot when my neighbor came to my house. The day before the surgery she and her family had a thanksgiving celebration for Marlee’s foot. I want to share with you what that day was like using the father’s own words.

“It has been a great day, but it did not seem enough to just thank her foot for everything it has done. Not only has she had the opportunity to walk on it for eight years, but the brave devoted little thing kept the cancer from spreading. That foot has been a trooper. No metastasis. It kept that horrible tumor from spreading to other parts of her little body. So we celebrate and thank that brave little foot for taking care of our precious Marlee for as long as it did.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to that little left foot that did everything it could to save Marlee’s life by keep the poison from spreading.

So if that foot had ears, we would tell it, Thank You! Thank You and Thank You! You will certainly be missed but we will be forever grateful. Good-bye and Godspeed.”

The day before, a family by the name of McLaughlin brought their little nine year old girl over to see Marlee and encourage her. The little girl’s name was Allie and she also had her foot removed a year before because she had the same cancer as Marlee.

The two little girls bonded as Allie showed Marlee her prosthesis and even talked about how she was able to ski with her new foot.

I wonder how these two sweet little girls knew what Paul was talking about when he said, “…making it (his body) serve me.” It must have been the Lord.

Father,

Even though I feel a loss for words, I do desire for those who hear the story of Allie and Marlee to ultimately make their body subject to the Spirit of the Lord. Help us all Lord to come to that end.

Amen