God created each of us with different motivations, abilities and ways of perceiving to match our different spiritual gifts.

Unfortunately, though, we all tend to view others as being motivated and perceiving reality just like us.

When we finally begin realizing that’s not the case, we hopefully can start learning to affirm the varied, different motivations, abilities and ways of perceiving that God gives others.

This is part of what it means to prefer one another above ourselves.

Otherwise, we become a bottleneck rather than a resource in the multi-gifted, multi-part, multi-functional Body of Christ that God commands us to be in Scripture.

This is why relational participatory church – as also commanded in Scripture – is so crucial for developing mature believers.

Unlike spectator mono-church, it allows each of us – as the different parts of the complete Body of Christ – to fully function together through ministry one to another for the mutual building up of all.

Don’t be like me – I’m much more hardheaded than most and God had to take me through a deep existential crisis to finally “get” it.

But when I did, it was liberating and I never looked back.

My walk with the Lord then became a wonderful journey of adventure and discovery …

One with another!