Distinctions

A bit of a sidetrack... I have beeen thinking a lot lately of church community and familial relationships. The question seems to come up, though, of indivuality. It is, of course, posed to avoid the impression of indivualism. How can I know who I am, if I find my identity in another entity? Am I not then defined by who, or what, I associate with? It seems difficult to focus on indivuality outside of indivualism. I cannot be obsessed with who I am, or I won't get any deeper than myself. Indivualism doesn't go anywhere. The body of Christ is made up of many parts. If I am a little pinkie toe, my distictiveness, the definition of my indivual being, is found, not in my pinkie-toe-ness, but in my being a pinkie toe on a foot on a body. If all I am is a cute little pinkie toe, outside of the body, I have lost definition and individualality. All the sudden I'm just another non-conformist. Paint it black. In a family, a husband is such only because he has a wife, a father because he has children. Indivuality is lost on indivualism. To look into myself to define who I am, I find only what I am; a supersized bundle of filthy rags. It is through the definition of who Jesus Christ is, and what He has done that we become dinstinct, because we are no longer alone.