Plantar Fasciitis and the body of Christ
We need to avoid our tendency to overcorrect problem areas
A few years ago I had a condition called "plantar fasciitis." This injury results in sharp pain in the inner heel due to tearing of some connective tissue. I had it on both feet at the same time.
Rather than seeking medical treatment, I ignored the pain and learned instead to walk differently. I started walking on the outer part of my foot, since the pain was focused on the inside part of my heel.
That was a great temporary solution, but the soreness came back to my heel after I started running. I wondered if the plantar fasciitis condition had returned. No, that wasn't it; the soreness was now on the opposite side of my heel. What happened?
I had learned to walk differently in order to avoid pain, but by the time the pain was gone I had developed a new way of walking, and as a result every step now struck the ground first with the outside of my heel, causing pain there instead of the inside. I had overcorrected.
Huge problem
Overcorrection is a huge problem in many other areas of our lives, and especially in our lives together as believers. This giant organism we call the Church is described in Scripture as the body of Christ. Much like the human body, there are tensions at play, there is connective tissue, and there are parts that must move in order for other parts to work.
And of course this body has also experienced hurts and injuries. We don't always seek out wise treatments. Sometimes, instead, we choose to avoid the pain by redirecting our efforts in the opposite direction. We walk on the outside of the foot to avoid the pain of walking on the injured inside, only to discover later that the opposite extreme isn't really that helpful once it, too, is put under stress.
Common targets
I'm sure we could create a rather lengthy list of common targets for overcorrection. But let's just look at a few of the big ones.
We're shocked when we perceive anyone to be judging, especially when they are judging us! It should never happen, right? But then we see that the first letter to the Corinthians says,"Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?" It actually tells us that it is our duty to make loving judgments, according to the word of God, about other believers' lives.
We recoil at the mention of calling people to repent because some people do this in a way that communicates that we are superior to everyone else. But then we see the words of Jesus: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,"and "Unless you repent, you will perish…"If He's calling people to repent, why wouldn't we?
We all agree that religion is bad, right? But then we see that Scripture defines what good and true religion is. It doesn't say "Religion is bad. Avoid religion at all costs!" It says that religion itself can be bad or good.
Is there a less popular word than preaching in the church today? Many are ready to do away with it completely, but then we see that Jesus says, "I must preach the good news … for I was sent for this purpose." Rather than being an antiquated, ineffective form of communication, it's the very form of communication that Jesus was sent to practice.
Some wince at the mention of each of these topics because we've all seen them practiced in unbiblical ways and know how damaging this can be. But there they are in the words of our Scripture. A mature believer will seek to use each of them in wise ways, acknowledging to critics that many bad examples can be found, but not agreeing that any of these should be abandoned.
We must do this, because when we push too hard away from one thing, we are likely to swing all the way over to its opposite…and that's just asking for another injury.
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