Needed

By Chris Travis

I wanted to surprise my wife. I”ve found that the surprise factor can turn even a tiny gift into a big success, and this was no tiny gift””I had finally found a piano.

The trick with a piano is getting it from point A to point B. But I”ve got a couple of tricks up my sleeve. I picked up the piano on a Tuesday””the night my small group Bible study meets in my home. So when the guys arrived, all ready to pursue God together and be spiritual, they found a pickup truck backed up to my front door, tailgate down, shocks straining under the weight of the piano.

They were real good sports about it.

While we were grunting and sweating and bumping into corners, I thought, Nothing reveals your need for other people quite like having to move a piano.

And it”s true. You can try to go through life under the illusion of independence, until the day comes when you need to move a piano. Then, without a brilliant and ridiculous system of ropes and pulleys, you are just going to have to ask for help.

They Need You

Not everyone feels the need for community. Whatever the next piano is that they”ll need to move, it hasn”t reared its head just yet. Plenty of people aren”t looking for one more set of relationships, especially those that come in a spiritual community.

But I”m wondering whether you”ve ever considered the possibility a small group out there might need you.

Something the Bible says has staggering implications with regard to this: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God”s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10). Apparently, the grace God wants to give to the world normally travels through his people.

Occasionally he works a miracle. Every once in a while he sends an angel. But normally he entrusts the various forms of his grace to us and asks us to faithfully administer that grace to each other and the world around us.

Now if that”s true, there are some pretty serious implications.

If we isolate ourselves, if we decide to go at this alone, we might make it””until there”s a piano to move. But how can we faithfully administer God”s grace through whatever gift he has entrusted to us if we never get down into the nitty-gritty of other people”s lives? The few minutes we have to chat before the service begins on Sunday just isn”t enough time to really get involved in somebody”s life.

And if you never get involved in a biblical community that”s small enough for you to know others and be known by them””a group of people with whom you come to know one another”s fears, hopes, doubts, dreams, and favorite ice cream flavor””how can you “fulfill the law of Christ” by carrying “each other”s burdens” (Galatians 6:2)?

They Need Me

But I”m not sure stubborn independence is what keeps most people from getting involved in other people”s lives. In my experience, it”s the opposite problem: Most people think they have nothing to offer.

It”s not that we”re unwilling to try to contribute; it”s that we don”t feel like we could. But recall the first two words from 1 Peter 4:10: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others.”

Sometimes it”s much easier to see others” gifts than to see our own. It”s easy for me to see, for example, how my small group needs each of the guys in it.

Take Randy. He is so incredibly transparent that it gives the rest of us the courage to be honest about ourselves too.

Then there”s Paul, who conceptualizes the things we”re studying so well and has a knack for restating it in a way that the rest of us can grasp.

Randy (the other Randy; we have two) was just recently baptized into Christ, and his new faith has given us an excuse to revisit some of those things about God that caused the rest of us to love him in the first place.

Mike has had some of the most bizarre and varied life experiences you could ever pack into one lifetime, and he”s a good storyteller. He”s also making some big changes in his life that are inspiring.

Dan is a seminary student, so he helps us get into the Greek when we really want to dig in. But he”s also extremely extroverted and energetic, so he brings a lot of life to our discussions.

Chris (the other Chris!) has wisdom beyond his 20 years and the amount of passion you”d expect, which is a great combination.

Daniel (the other Dan, I”m not kidding!) throws himself into the spiritual disciplines with such abandon that he really challenges all of us.

Cameron is a genius at reflective listening. He has a gift for helping others sort through what they feel and think, and it makes him a great discussion leader.

It”s very easy for me to see how God has gifted these men to administer his grace. It”s a bit harder to believe that about myself. Maybe it”s hard for you to believe anyone feels that way about you.

Being in a small group helps with that too. Not long ago, I received an e-mail from Randy (the second Randy!), thanking me for the role I am playing in his life. He said he had never been able to open up to anybody before, and he thanked me for being so easy to talk to. “I know I wouldn”t be where I am right now,” he wrote, “if it weren”t for you.”

I”d been having a terrible day until I received that e-mail. And do you know what else? I never knew that being approachable was a quality of mine.

Make no mistake, you are gifted. It may not feel like it; maybe you”ve never identified your giftedness, but you are gifted. And when you say you have nothing to offer, that can be a kind of false humility. You”re actually making God out to be a liar when you say that, because God in his Word says he”s gifted you.

I Need to Be Needed

Remember the Jimmy Stewart movie It”s a Wonderful Life? This summer it came up in a conversation, and some friends were visibly appalled I had never seen it. I”m not exactly a conformist, but it was clear I was missing out on something. So I decided to rent a copy on the way home from work.

I watched as George Bailey is saved from committing suicide by an angel named Clarence. What Clarence does is brilliant: he meets George on the bridge as he”s about to jump and takes him back through his life, showing him all the wonderful things he had done. Clarence shows him how terrible the world would be had George never saved his little brother from falling through the ice, never married and had his wonderful children, never operated the Bailey Building & Loan that helped so many people buy homes and start businesses and accomplish their goals.

Once he sees how other people have needed him, George decides he wants to live, and he wants it bad. When Clarence grants his wish and returns him to that bridge, George is overcome by joy and he runs through the streets shouting “Merry Christmas!” to everyone he sees. He even starts shouting at the buildings”””Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, pharmacy! Merry Christmas, Bailey”s Building & Loan!”

And there I am, alone in the middle of August, without a Christmas tree anywhere in sight, laughing out loud and relishing that “Christmas feeling.”

What an incredible thing, to know you”re needed.

They Miss You

So I”m wondering what this world, what your church, would be like without you. Unfortunately, I don”t have to guess. I see it all the time.

I see groups that really could use the wisdom that some more mature folks could bring, if they”d join.

I see groups where the whole atmosphere would change, where the group members would really come alive, if someone with a gift for hospitality would host them.

I see small groups whose members would be so much better cared for if someone with a mercy gift would join them.

I see people whose lives would be changed by the prayers offered in their group if someone with the gift of faith were there to help them believe.

And I see people who would change the world if someone with the gift of encouragement could give them the courage.

I see people who are out of work, who have lost a loved one, who are losing their faith””and it could mean all the difference if someone who has been through that would come alongside them.

I wonder what the church would be like if everyone faithfully administered the gift of grace that God has entrusted to him or her.

They Will Remember

When you are on your deathbed, you won”t ask to hold that award one last time. You won”t ask to see your pay stub, or to hear the sound of your car”s engine one last time. No, you will ask for the people you love to be close. And when you”re gone, when we”re all eating potato salad and swapping stories about you at somebody”s house, that”s not what we”re going to care about either. No, we”re going to talk about how you made us feel, how you invested in our lives””how you let God”s grace pass through you into us.

I love my small group. They are my friends””we hang out, we go boating together and make fools of ourselves on the inner tube. They are my brothers””we divide the words of Scripture together, we pray for one another.

But the best thing about it is knowing I matter to them. The best thing is knowing I”m needed.

Chris Travis is minister with the Westside location of LifeSpring Christian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio.