It’s critical during crisis that we show compassion and courage, that we pool our resources, link hands, and work together. This church is really good at that. When someone goes to the hospital, when someone loses a loved one, when a marriage falls apart, when a job is lost, when someone gets sick, when we need workers, when we are running behind on budget people step up. There’s always room for growth, but we are good at that. Praise God for that.

But if we are really going to make a bigger difference in each other’s lives and in this community, then it will take all of us linking hands, working together, giving of our energy and effort on a regular basis. This is far more than money. This is ministry of all kinds at all times.

Discipleship isn’t just stepping up in an emergency. Discipleship is showing up every day. Praise God for all the times people show compassion and courage in a crisis. But God wants us to use all we have and all we are to show compassion and courage during all the mundane moments of life as well.

That’s the picture of the church Paul paints in Rom 12. The church is diverse, like the human body with different parts serving different functions. But we need each other. We rely on each other. So however God has gifted you, use those gifts to give to others, to help others, to encourage others. Any gift we receive from God is from grace and for grace. God graciously gives to us because we need it and because others need it too. He pours out grace on top of grace so that his grace to you will overflow to those around you.