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Consider your kidney. Most folks have two, each bean-shaped and about the size of a fist. The kidney's lie near the spine, their top protected by the 11th and 12th rib and bottom extending a little below the rib cage. Each kidney contains about a million nephrons, microscopic fibers that filter blood. Human kidneys clean approximately 54 gallons of blood each day or, said another way, they process all the blood in the body about 40 times per day. Working with the endocrine system, the kidneys help regulate blood pressure and the concentration of electrolytes and pH (acid/base) balance in the body. The kidneys stimulate the production of hormones that help the body produce red blood cells and absorb vitamin D to keep bones strong.
Kidneys are amazing little organs, but when encouraged to "consider your kidney," the truth is that most folks don't until something goes wrong. A kidney stone quickly demands attention, and when doctors use words like "renal failure" or "dialysis," most people listen up. But, on average, most people never give well-functioning kidneys a second thought.
Do you ever feel like a kidney? You work hard every day for your day's pay. You put in your best effort and you get along well with co-workers, but the boss never hands you a nice compliment or a fat raise. Are you even noticed?
Do you ever feel like a kidney? Every day you clean the house and maintain order. You make sure your family has enough to eat, clean clothes to wear, and reliable transportation in the driveway. You regulate kids' bedtimes and taxi everyone to practices and recitals. Your "thanks" is to be taken for granted. No one thinks about your needs at all until, in frustration, you create a very painful moment.
Do you ever feel like a kidney? Sunday morning finds you with your seat in the pew and your money in the plate. The youth group parties at your swimming pool every summer and you always drop some extra food in the holiday drive. You count the others in your Sunday School class as friends and your church is really important to you. But are you really important to your church? Does anyone even notice your faithfulness? Does your contribution matter?
In 1 Corinthians 12:15-18 (NIV), the Apostle Paul uses some other "taken-for-granted" parts of the body to make an important point: "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 God made you a "kidney," then be the best kidney you can be! Others may not notice your importance, but Heaven knows. Others may not see your contribution, but God does. God made you and, in His plans, you matter!
Paul Partridge stepped on a landmine in Vietnam in 1966, resulting in the loss of both legs. Back home, Partridge lived in suburban Chicago, across the street from a neighbor lady who started screaming one day, "My baby, my baby!" Partridge pushed himself across the street In his wheelchair, then lunged out of the chair and onto his hands and knees. He painfully made his way for 60 feet up concrete stairs and onto the deck of the neighbor's pool, where he found the woman's baby, dripping wet, heart stopped. Partridge started CPR, saying to the child over and over, "Little girl, you're going to make it. You're going to live!" Suddenly the baby gasped for air, and Partridge screamed for someone to call a medic.
Some might call Paul Partridge "disabled." Some might avert their eyes from his wheelchair as they pass Partridge in a store. On an average day, most folks wouldn't notice Paul Partridge. But on that day in suburban Chicago, no one could convince that mother that Paul Partridge was anything less than the world's greatest superhero.
God made you. Be all He created you to be!