In proportion to your faith...

There is a fascinating passage in the Letter to the Romans: In chapter 12, the Apostle Paul exhorts his readers to exercise the individual gifts they have each received.

It is an essential topic - for the church is not desined to become an arid cloister of spiritual clones. Instead, its calling is to be a vibrant, colourful community, where a patchwork of ministries dovetail together in harmony to serve all who come to it.

Hoever, his advice is tinged with a subtle warning - eah is to serve in proportion to their faith. Not to think too highly of themselves, lest they should be a vitim of presumption; neither should they afflict themselves with that pernicious false modesty, that - irony of ironies - takes a special pride in being of too little use to anyone else.

This lays another equally important question before s - what is this proportion? How do we know whether we're over-estimating or underestimating the level of faith we have?

The answer is simple enough - do you have peace? A driven overachiever or a guilt-ridden worm won't.


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