Chosen (08/03/2025)

Throughout our lives, we have times when we are chosen. They mean something to us. When we’re chosen for a team at recess, when we’re chosen for a job, when we’re chosen by another for marriage. Being chosen stirs within us a feeling of belonging and joy.

One evening, my husband and I had settled in for a movie together. We were about 20 minutes into the show when the doorbell rang. We looked at one another, wondering who would be coming by at that hour on a Friday evening. I was elected to find out.

When I opened the door, I found one of my beloved neighbors with a somewhat frazzled look upon her face and her phone extended to me in her right hand. “My phone won’t work” she told me. She handed it over to me, and I tried to get it to do what she wanted, to make a call. After trying two or three times and methods, I told her I was going to turn her phone off, wait a minute, then restart it. I explained that I’d found that sometimes that’s what it needs. I shared with her that the wisdom actually came from my husband who’d helped me when I found myself in a similar situation to hers.

And when we turned the phone back on, I was able to find the contact she wanted to reach and place the call. She had her conversation and even shared that I was there and that I’d helped her get her phone to work. Then, after she hung up, we talked for a minute or two before she headed back. I thanked her thinking of me as a resource.

When I got back in the house, I explained to my husband who was at the door, the reason for her visit, and our solving the problem. I acknowledged to him that I’d admitted to our neighbor that he’d taught me the trick. He smiled pretty broadly.

I must admit that I didn’t really follow the next few minutes of the movie, my mind was still on my visitor. And I felt the joy just kept rising and bringing my mind and heart with it. It is such a gift to be chosen by another in need at the moment. I felt seen as competent but also understanding.

Along “the Way,” if we are blessed, we will be chosen by others who need us and our assistance. That moment is a blessing to us, a time to give rather than receive, a time to accompany, a time to accept the need of the other without judgment. That moment can bring a relationship to a new level of loving trust.

I can remember multiple times in my decades of life when I’d needed such a companion. I would wager that most of us can. As we go forward, let us consider upping the definition of “chosen” to go beyond playground games and career moves to include the most important of all – being chosen by our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ who told us, “You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain” (John 15:16).  And let us also expand it to include being chosen by another in need at the time, another who trusts us and who is willing to share their frustration and need along the way with us. Is not a fuller and more loving relationship with another “fruit” that would make Jesus smile?

My friend and neighbor came to me with a need. I hope she recognizes that in that moment, both of us were helped.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.