Making room for others to serve

When you are good at something it is easy to look down on others, hoard information, do it all yourself and look awesome.

But here’s the thing. It does no good for the kingdom of God. When you are being the body and not a member of the body, you are not considering the body. You are only considering yourself. You are running the race in such a manner that you will get the crown at the end of the race.

The problem? You have misunderstood the race. The race is not meant to be a victory if you have worked on your sanctification diligently alone. The race that we are called to run involves the sanctification of others as well. Our due diligence is in making sure that we help others.

Sometimes, we come in the way of doing that by being all about ourselves and leaving no space for others. We fix everything because we can. Sometimes it’s just good to let things stay broken so that you can make room for others to watch you fix things. The intention is not so that they can admire how well you fix things. But you pick a person or two and tell them that you are going to show them how to fix this particular broken “object” so that they can learn how to fix it themselves too. Eventually if you have spent enough time fixing with them, they will be able to fix stuff with your supervision. Soon, they will be able to do it all by themselves.

Wonderful isn’t it? Can we be intentional about making room? I bet we can. But here’s the catch. Not all of us are to be making room. Some of us need the space to grow. Let’s be honest about where we stand.

Keep this little model in mind so that helping others grow becomes an ongoing continual process.

1. I do; you watch; we talk.
2. We do; we talk.
3. You do; I watch; we talk.
4. You do; we talk.
5. You do; someone else watches; you’ll talk; we talk.

It is important to make room for others but do not leave them to themselves. They might be overwhelmed with the task. At the same time do not be looking over their shoulders so that they are terrified of letting you down. Be kind, you were once a rookie yourself.