Just Bring Yourself

If you enjoy sharing meals with others, it is likely that you’ve had this conversation a time or two:  “Want to come over for dinner?”  “ Sure!  What can I bring?”  “Oh, nothing, just bring yourself.”

Imagine that same conversation with God:  “Come, be part of my kingdom!”  “Sure! What can I bring?” “Oh, nothing, just bring yourself.”

Sometimes, when people think about connecting with God- maybe by going to church, they hesitate.  Maybe they are worried that God will reject them, or the church will, maybe they think the church has nothing to offer them or they have nothing to offer the church. Or maybe they think “people who go to church should be good people, but they are no better than me!”

But the real truth is that the people who are part of a church aren’t there because they are so good - they are there because they know they are not good enough and they want to accept God’s gifts, God’s love, and God’s forgiveness, to become better. All God asks us to bring is ourselves.  God will provide the rest. 

About 20 years after Christ, the members of the church of Corinth began squabbling about who was most important.  In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul wrote to the church, and I will paraphrase here:  There are different kinds of gifts, but all the gifts come from God, and none of them is more important than the other. There are different kinds of service and of working, but in all of them, the same God is served.  God may give the gift of wisdom to one, the gift of knowledge to another, of faith to another, healing to another and compassion to still another.  But all these gifts come from God, and all these gifts together serve God and the common good of the people of God.

What gifts does God provide?  Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, compassion, certainly. But if you look at your life and think “all I have to bring are my doubts, my fear, my problems, and my pain.”  Those are also gifts from God.  As you share your doubts and fears, you encourage others to examine their faith. Your pain, your brokenness and your healing can be a witness to others of God’s grace.  Your story of survival might be just what someone needs to make it through the day themselves.

In God’s church, each person is valued.  Each one of us, at every stage of our life, no matter our circumstances or our experience, receives a gift from God and has a place in God’s kingdom.  All we need to bring is ourselves.