I had a good laugh with the pastor of my church a couple weeks ago when a few of us were working on something in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.  As he was navigating the spreadsheet on his laptop, a couple of us were telling him what buttons to press to make something happen.  As we were all laughing at the process, he stated, “They didn’t teach us how to do this stuff in seminary.” 

His comment reminded me how we need the skills and talents of others.  There’s no way any one of us can know everything.  I don’t know anyone who can do all of the following:

• Use a spreadsheet
• Perform dentistry
• Make gasoline
• Build a cell phone tower
• Build a cell phone
• Fly a passenger aircraft
• Perform surgery
• Build a car
• Make steel
• Grow vegetable on a commercial scale
• Operate a railroad
• Build or operate a hydro-electric power plant
• Professionally counsel someone through personal difficulties
• Run a city sewer system
• Build a skyscraper
• Compose music
• Play a musical instrument
• And on and on and on…

I’m fortunate that we can rely on others to help where our knowledge falls short.  Often times, we don’t even think about all the people that we’ll never meet that are behind some of the technology, infrastructure, and entertainment we use every day.  However, we daily benefit from their contributions.

What I’m also grateful for is that we can contribute our skills and talents to improve the lives of others too!  To me it seems like the best way that we can say, “Thank you” to those whose efforts benefit us, is to give our effort to improve the lives of others.