When we take the absolute viewpoint we gain comfort in God's plan, yes, but we may miss the joy of what it feels like to do something for God.

I know what you're thinking: "I'm doing something for God" sounds awful Christiany. Yes, it does. And the way THEY mean it IS offensive. Christians see their roles as absolute, not relative. When they use the pronoun "I," they mean that they are acting independently of God.

But wait. We use the pronoun "I" as well. How do we get away with it? Like this: Our old humanity was crucified with Christ (Romans 5:6). With Christ the old "I" was crucified (Galatians 2:20). Right. But wait. I'm still living (Galatians 2:20). Yes, but it's not the old I, it's the new. The new I knows that "living in me is Christ" (Galatians 2:20) and that my every thought and action is inspired and effected by God.

This truth should also inform our awareness that there are prizes handed out at the dais of Christ for individual feats of service. Let us not forget this, because some even in the body of Christ endorse some sort of "spiritual communism," where everyone gets the same thing. As if we're not individuals. Ah, but this "we're not all individual" thing is the mistake made by those tending too hard toward the absolute and not realizing that "Paul plants and Apollos waters."

Enjoy your role in the body of Christ and keep doing it, knowing that you will be rewarded for it and that it is "Christ operating in you to will as well as to work for the sake of His delight" (Philippians 2:13).