#FFFF: Matt Greene

Is there beauty in the body? 

No, I’m not talking about tanned skin and trim waist lines. What I am referring to is the body of Christ. Is there beauty in this body?

I have an older brother, he’s one of my best friends in this life. He’s one of my biggest supporters and he’s had a huge influence on me as a writer and musician. But, like any siblings, growing up we had our fair share of disagreements.

As a kid I didn’t realize he was one of my best friends. I knew I wanted to be like him and be wherever he was, but he also frustrated me more than any other person I knew. So much so that we constantly fought about almost everything. Whether we agreed or not, we fought.

Looking back I can’t help but think how frustrating it must have been for my parents. Watching the two of us fight like mortal enemies, not knowing if we’d ever realize how important family is, and hoping we’d overcome our differences. They must have known that eventually we’d realize the true value of family, but it couldn’t have been easy.

One day my big bro went off to college and I soon realized I missed him. What?! I always wished he’d buzz off, leave me alone, and bother someone else. But before too long I came to the realization that he was so much more than the antagonizing, bullying big brother that I thought. Yes, he was still those things at times, but he was also my protector, my source of courage in scary situations, my supporter, my friend. 

Although we are two very different people with our own views of life and the world around us, we are brothers. Because of that we belong to something bigger than us, a family. With all of our disfunctions and disagreements we find commonality in the family to which we both belong.

As brothers in sisters in Christ we belong to a body, a family. Within this body we have scores of disagreements, countless topics on which we fall on opposite sides of an intense battle with casualties we scarcely even know existed. Now, I’m not so naive as to say that there aren’t ‘hills we should die on’ so to speak, but I am proposing that we learn to lay aside our differences for the sake of the body.

There are so many verbal battles being fought daily and the casualties aren’t the ones doing the fighting. No, more often than not the casualties are the innocent bystanders, the ones standing by watching the fight take place. They are the ones who walk away disillusioned, thinking, ‘This family is so disfunctional, why would I want to be a part of this?!’

I’m not saying we shouldn’t have healthy discussions and disagreements. In fact, I would say the opposite. I think we need MORE healthy disagreements coupled with an understanding that we are a body and this body can be beautiful. We can agree and disagree with grace and love.