For much of life, being needed feels good.
Someone needs our expertise.
A team depends on us.
We carry responsibilities that other people cannot easily carry.
Over time, being needed can become part of how we understand our value.
Perhaps we even begin trying to become indispensable.
Recently, I have begun wondering whether there is another way to live.
Not indispensable.
Available.
The difference seems small, but it changes almost everything.
If I need to be indispensable, I naturally look for places where my contribution is large.
How many people need me?
How important is my role?
What happens if I am no longer there?
But if I simply want to be available, the scale becomes much less important.
I can look around and say:
There is someone here whom I can help. Good.
Perhaps that person needs my experience.
Perhaps they need encouragement.
Perhaps they need someone to listen.
Perhaps all I can offer is a smile or a kind word.
It does not need to be impressive.
There is always someone, somewhere, to whom I can give something.
I don’t need to find everyone.
I only need to notice the person in front of me—and take the next small step.
This feels much freer.
I do not have to build the largest platform.
I do not have to make everyone understand my value.
I do not have to remain at the center of something I once built.
I can give something, learn something, enjoy the conversation, receive something from the other person, and then keep moving.
Perhaps this is also a different understanding of calling.
Calling does not have to mean finding the largest possible place for my abilities.
Maybe it can be much simpler.
Stay close to God.
Receive enough love for today.
Notice the person in front of me.
Give whatever small thing I can give.
Release what happens afterward.
Keep moving.
Some days, what I give may be significant.
Other days, almost nobody will notice.
But perhaps scale is not the point.
I used to think contribution meant becoming increasingly useful to more people.
Now I wonder whether a rich life may be built from thousands of much smaller moments of availability.
One person.
One conversation.
One kind word.
One small act.
Then move on without needing to know what happened afterward.
I no longer need to be indispensable.
I only need to remain available.
Available to God.
Available to the person in front of me.
Available to whatever small opportunity to give appears today.
Perhaps that is enough.
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