The Good Talker
Value: Spiritual Gifts
“Who needs him, he’s such a loser.” Roger responded to his friend Steven when
the subject of Danny came up.
“That’s a pretty harsh thing to say about your brother.” Steven responded. Roger
knew it was harsh. He thought back when he and Danny were kids. Danny, the older
by a year and a half, was always the guy who could “fix anything”. Oh, how mom
and dad bragged on Danny when he fixed the washing machine or the lawnmower of
unclogged a drain in the kitchen. At first, Roger tried to learn to do what
Danny did but it never worked out.
Finally, in high school, Roger found his gift and like his own dad, it was the
gift of gab. He won competition after competition in speech, debate and other
forms of speech giving. He seemed to have a natural ability to talk to people,
give speeches or just get people to see things his way or rally to his cause. It
served him well as he moved into a sales career whereas Danny built a very
successful auto mechanics business around his skill.
But sadly, for all the success the brothers had their dislike of each other kept
them apart. Danny never understood by talking was a good skill and Roger thought
being able to tinker with machines or pipes or wires was a geeky way to be. They
fought about it endlessly until Danny moved out but holidays were always tense
except when they went to see Grandma. Everything stopped at Grandma’s house
because she saw them as her sweet baby boys and for a while when they visited
her, they were sweet and children again, innocent and always ready to play.
Steven left his friend Roger in his office thinking about his brother. Roger
wondered if there ever be a way to make things ok between them. He didn’t know
that over I his garage, while fixing a car, Danny was wondering the same thing.
Roger’s thoughts were broken by the phone ringing. He answered it. The sound of
urgency in the voice was frightening.
“Roger, the floods have his Pilger.” Steven informed him. Pilger was not far
from the large city where his family grew up. “The water is rising there and
people are becoming trapped in their second floors. The Red Cross is going in to
try to get people out.”
At first, Roger didn’t get too alarmed but then he remembered, Pilger was where
Grandma lived. He picked up the phones and called her but no answer. He knew she
lived alone in that big house and probably could not get to the phone. The
thought of her alone facing that terror was more than he could stand. Moving
almost on instinct, Roger got moving. He organized a rescue mission for the town
of Pilger using his huge network of contacts at church, work, his clubs and his
business contacts. Within hours, Roger had an army of men and machinery gathered
in the parking lot of the Church. They were ready to invade Pilger and save
those people.
“Folks,” he announced to the crowd of rescuers from his bullhorn. “We need to
pray. My grandma is down there and you all have relatives there too. Let’s pray
that God help them until we can get there.” And then he bowed his head and led
them in prayer.
“Roger we have another area to pray about.” Steve shouted out. “Lots of these
boats are broken. We need mechanical help or getting all of us down there will
be no good. We need someone who can fix anything.” Roger felt his face go hot
with emotion because it was like God was telling him, “Get Danny.” He had no
time to wallow in self-pity or resentment at Danny. He picked up his cell phone
and called his brother’s number.
All he had to say to Danny was “Danny, its Roger, grandma’s in danger. Get down
here.” And he knew Danny would fly to the scene. And that is what happened.
Danny brought his tools and workers and in no time, they had the machines in
tiptop shape. Side by side, the brothers loaded the boats and together they got
to Pilger and got every citizen out. As the brothers sat side by side on the
boat heading to grandma’s house they both suddenly knew why they were so
different. Danny knew that he could have never gotten such a huge response and
organized the rescue so beautifully. And Roger knew that Danny’s gift for fixing
things was crucial to their success.
As they got grandma into the boat, she hugged them both and kissed them and then
she said what they both were thinking. “God has given each of you boys a
wonderful spiritual gift. Working together you are a powerful tool for him.”
They knew it was right because that is how God blesses the church. By giving
everyone unique and wonderful gifts, we all can work together to do what God has
for us to do. Separate we are incomplete but together we are powerful tools for
God to use for good.