I had an epiphany last night.  Don’t worry…it hardly hurt at all.

I was at band rehearsal last night.  I’m a vocalist – alto.  I’ve been singing with bands most of my adult life.  Harmony is my thing.  Just comes naturally without even thinking about it.

But I cannot clap and sing at the same time.  Try as I might, I just come off looking like a four-year-old in a Christmas pageant that is clapping to her own rhythm.  It just ain’t pretty, and over the years has been a source of entertainment for friends and family who know my rhythmic dysfunction.

And here is where my epiphany comes in.  I do absolutely fine when I am keeping the beat by hitting my left hand on my left hip.  My right and left hands are not having to work together.  Although I am not left-handed, I am a right brain dominant person, nearly straight down the line (with the exceptions of being good at sports and a lover of cats – both of which I am not.) So when the left side of my body is free from having to please the right side of my body, it does just fine.  The left side of my brain (the logical, organized thought side -seldom used :-)) gets a break and lets my right brain do its thing.

Days away from my 48th year on this planet, I am still coming to understand my strengths and my weaknesses.  I’ve learned that the left and right side of my brain don’t always work well together.  And where this used to frustrate me to no end, I’m beginning to see that both sides in me have their place.  Some need to be exercised more than others to be strengthened and grown.  But by using my strengths to their capacity, somehow my weaknesses gain a little muscle in the process, too.

God has created each of us so uniquely and I am so thankful for that.  I need left-brained people in my life to help me get my head out of the clouds sometimes.  To fill in the gaps that I leave behind.  To see the blind spots that my right-brained eyes miss.  To be able to clap for me because I can’t…

Let’s be patient with each other today, knowing that each of has our own strengths and weaknesses.  We all have areas where we thrive and other areas that, no matter how hard we try, will never be our forte’.  I want to find those strengths in others.  Especially those who don’t operate like me.  I want to celebrate the way in which our differences can enhance and complement each other.  Iron sharpening iron.  Where different ways could easily frustrate, I want to find a new beauty in the harmony that’s possible when those differences are combined and used together.  That place where a new song springs from what could be a lot of ugly noise.

I am singing this weekend.  There is no way in heck that I will be clapping.  But I will be keeping rhythm with the entire left side of my body and enjoying sweet music with those who can clap for me…

Matthew 6:3 – don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. (out of context, but kinda funny!)

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 – Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.  Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being 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 stop being 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 placed 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 put the body together, giving 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. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.