The Team

Have you ever listened to really good music? Well, of course you have. Regardless of the genre, music is always best when it is a collection of parts. Whether it is an orchestra or a choir, a band or a singing group, good music is composed of parts whose sum is greater than the whole.

Without actually changing the subject, let me tell you a little about the place I work. We are doing complicated research and production. It includes scientists, research assistants, and test technicians that require more skills than your average technician. But there is more. There is electronic design and software design. There is cutting edge manufacturing methods that are creating things not created before. However, remove one part, one of those functions, and you've lost the end result. Good products are composed of parts whose sum is greater than the whole.

Back to music for a moment. Have you noticed the trend in pop music? It seems to be less and less that you hear good harmonies. Everyone wants to sing the lead. You see, the truth is that when you are a component, you often end up outside the center of attention. When a group sings, everyone can pick out the lead singer, but exactly who is singing what harmony part is much more difficult. Everyone can name the lead singer, but the rest are simply called "back up singers" and don't seem to actually have names.

Still, if you remove a component, you've lost the end result. Music with a melody alone is, well, boring. It may be pleasant, but it isn't really good. Someone has to be willing to play behind the lead. In fact, there are a lot of someone's needed. You need stage hands and sound folks and lighting. You need someone to clean up before and clean up afterward. At work we need people to build electronics and we need people to sweep the lab and we need people to clean the bathrooms, without which none of the amazing work could be accomplished. But you never really know who the stage hands or janitors or assemblers are, do you?

The truth is, most of us are janitors. We sing harmony. We are behind the scenes. Too often we let people tell us that we're "less" somehow. We don't sing lead. We don't get the credit. We aren't recognized. Paul has something to say to those of us who are "inferior" in this way.

¹⁴ For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. ¹⁹ And if they were all one member, where would the body be? ²⁰ But now there are many members, but one body. ²¹ And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." ²² On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; ²³ and those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness, ²⁴ whereas our seemly members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, ²⁵ that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. ²⁶ And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it (1 Cor. 12:14-26).

It's a lesson for the Church, to be sure. But it's equally applicable in life. No part is more important than another. We cannot function without all the parts. And, despite what our society might say, it is the less honorable parts that are most necessary and worthy of "more abundant honor." Those of us who aren't lead singers, top scientists, CEO's, or the like should keep that in mind.