This week was our inaugural meeting for our new small group. We're hosting it through our church, and since we're new to the church itself, we don't really know anyone. When we received our roster of people who had either asked to be in our group or been arbitrarily assigned to join us, we knew exactly two names: Ryan's boss and his wife. (And they don't even go to our church. They just wanted to be part of the group.)
Though we didn't set out to have a couple-focused group, we ended up with a list of couples, and we looked them all up in the church directory to try to guess ages and learn names.
The day of the study, I ran Rosie (that's our iLife vacuum), dusted the house, cleaned the bathrooms, put away all the Frank-and-Marie-Barone blankets that had been covering our furniture during Phoebe's visit, and baked a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies.
I arranged the napkins, turned on the Keurig, pulled out the creamer and coffee syrups. I arranged extra chairs from other rooms, and wrote a welcome message on our chalkboard.
Then I stewed for a bit.
I stewed because I worried that these couples wouldn't gel. My guess was that we had about an equal number of younger and older couples, and even though I dearly love a good mixed group, I wondered if those in attendance shared my love of a mixed group. What if the older crowd didn't care for impulsive whippersnappers? What if the younger crowd didn't care for the careful ways of their elders?
From there, the what-ifs just got out of hand. What if someone was allergic to Braeya? What if no one liked coffee? What if the house smelled like a dog and cat had been fighting for chief resident for a month? What if the house smelled like anything from the diffuser that someone was sensitive to? There are so many things to worry about these days!
The first car pulled into the driveway and as soon as that couple walked into the house (with all other members following shortly thereafter) all the worries went away. They took off their shoes and made themselves at home. They stirred up coffee concoctions and took seconds on cookies.
We engaged in obligatory ice-breaker conversations, where they opened right up and shared without judgment. They laughed together and sympathized over the hard stuff. And when the study officially concluded, they stayed. For over a half hour, they sat in their seats, continuing to get to know each other, blending easily over the decades that separated them, asking great questions (without the help of icebreakers) and eating more cookies.
All those prayers I'd paced through, telling God I just wasn't sure He'd assembled the right group seemed a bit ridiculous to me by the time we closed the door for the last time that night. I'm not sure a group of matched souls could have done much better than this group did on a first time meeting. It was comforting and encouraging, and I was both thankful and convicted.
God's not hiring a personal assistant. He doesn't need me to create His rosters or direct the conversation. He just needs me to sit back and appreciate the work He's doing.
It's a truth I knew, but clearly I needed a reminder. Maybe you do too, today. Withdraw your resume. He's got this, my friend!
3 comments:
So glad everyone gelled. Hope it's a meaningful group!
God always gets it right, even when no one shows up or the group doesn't immediately gel. But it's so hard for us to leave the control with Him, isn't it? I loved the "personal assistant" analogy and oh how I've tried, at times! :-)
The last two small groups we have been a part of we laughed because we thought we ended up being the "misfits", the leftovers that didn't fit into the other groups that were obviously divided up by singles, young married, young adult etc. Both times the groups have been great and we fit together so well. So glad that God plans these things not us.
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