Are You an Outie or an Innie?

¹⁶So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away,

our inner nature is being renewed day by day.   — 2 Corinthians 4:16

I celebrated the 37^th anniversary of my ordination to the ministry this past June 1^st.  I was only a young twenty-four-year-old, and fresh out of seminary, when I knelt in the sanctuary of the First Church of Christ in Woodbridge, Connecticut for the laying on of hands and for prayer.  I was full of a sense of God’s Call but I had much to learn.  For nearly four decades, beginning while I was still in school, I have had a connection to a particular congregation with whom I worshiped and for whom I preached, prayed, planned and practiced ministry.  The faithful people of those congregations have taught me so much about life and ministry, about service and witness, and about getting up every day and giving God your very best, no matter what.

I have seen many people struggle daily with chronic pain who nevertheless came to church and participated in the life of the congregation.  One woman, well into her nineties, still drove herself to church to attend Bible study.  Another, with chronic leg pain, still served in the kitchen preparing meals for the church and the community.  Others, while in fragile health themselves, would visit shut-in members and bring good cheer in the form of flowers, cards or cookies.  Their outer nature may have been wasting away, but it was clear that their inner nature was being renewed every day.

It calls to mind a question my kids used to ask each other and sometimes their Dad: “Are you an innie or an outie?”  I soon caught on to the joke: it had to do with whether your belly button was recessed or protruding.  The kids would lift their shirts, laughing, to prove the veracity of their status as an “innie” or an “outie.”

Pastor Lillian Daniels, of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, recently posed this children’s question in a spiritual devotional blog, suggesting that those who are “outies” in a spiritual sense are concerned most about their bodies: how they look and what others think.  “Innies,” on the other hand, were people who drew upon that inner nature and followed pathways of service, having little regard for appearances.

I still strive, after all these years, to be an “innie!”  How about you: “outie” or “innie”?

I look forward to greeting you at the church door or in the places where we renew our inner natures in service to our King,

Pastor Paul