Do you remember those playground days when kids picked teams for a game? There was always that awkward time when there were kids that weren't getting chosen. No matter whether you remember it, you know something of what those last kids felt. They were dying inside. It wasn't so much that they necessarily wanted to play, but they wanted to be chosen. They all wanted to hear people say, "Hey, we need YOU!"
I am so grateful that across the years I have known people who realized how important it is to say, "Hey, we need YOU!" because they have taught me just how vital; how life-giving it can be to simply say this and mean it.
When God broke into human history in the person of Jesus Christ he was saying to the entire human race, "Hey, I need YOU!" He said it to working class fishermen with whom he entrusted the core of his mission; knowing as he did that he would die for them and leave them with the work of carrying the message of the Gospel to the world. Jesus said it to the woman at the well who by her culture's standard was an outcast. He said it to the woman caught in the act of adultery. And he said it to a thief next to him on the cross when the man asked him to remember him. Jesus told him, "You are going to be with me."
There are churches and places of faith all over Carson City where you can hear, "Hey, we need YOU!" every day of the week and they mean it because God means it. We are all needed because we all need to love and be loved in extravagant ways that change lives beginning with our own. That's why Jesus came; why he loved to the point of giving himself up for every one of us; because he knew that no matter how successful we may become; no matter how much we may fail; every one of us needs to know that we are needed.
And we are needed all over Carson and all over the world because it is only as we live this message out that people's lives are changed. You are needed to sit with someone who is lonely. You are needed to spend some time with people who need just who YOU are. And when you do this you will find that it is YOU who is blessed because you will hear with words, with a smile, with a hug, with a changed life, someone saying, "Hey, we need YOU."
If you want to try me out on this walk up to your religious leader and say, "Whatever you need me to do, here I am." Once they've stopped crying, or jumping up and down I know you'll hear them say, "Hey, we need YOU." If you don't have a faith community, go find one. They are all over Carson. Once you find the one that fits, let them know you're there and you want to serve. Don't be surprised when in some way they say, "Hey, we need YOU."
You'll be so glad you did.
• Rev. Bruce Kochsmeier is the Senior Pastor a First Presbyterian ChurchCarson City.