Giving God Your Little

“Everybody can bring an invitation, a question, and a blessing. That's something that you can gift other people.”

Jun 04, 2025

Below is a snippet of a conversation with Laura Crosby, a 67-year-old woman who shares her extensive journey in ministry and the lessons she’s learned along the way, particularly regarding her identity in Christ. Laura encourages listeners to recognize and utilize their gifts and offer God “your little bit” – whether it’s extending someone an invitation or offering a word of encouragement. She also discusses various ways she has fostered meaningful connection with both God and others – even in a highly divisive culture. If you prefer listening, you can listen to or watch the full conversation on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.

What have you learned about God that you wish you’d known when you were younger?

Well, I kind of grew up in a charmed family and everything went right. But as I did more in ministry, people would ask me, don't you want to go to seminary? And I would say, absolutely, I would love to go to seminary. But I knew it wasn't the right time. My kids were still at home and everything.

But there came a time when my kids were in high school, and I was out on a jet ski on a lake, as you do in Minnesota. And there was just this clear sense of, it's time. So my husband went to the personnel committee at our church and said, Laura's thinking about going to seminary. No favoritism, no favors, but if there's ever a position open sometime in the future, is it reasonable to think that she might be able to be considered? And they were like, yes, absolutely. We had other husbands and wives and couples on staff, it was a large church.

And so I finished seminary. My husband went back to the committee. There were different people on the committee and he said, I just wanted to remind you, Laura's finishing and blah, blah. And they're like, hmm, you know, I think we're going to change that policy. I don't think it's wise for the wife of the senior pastor to also be on staff. So they changed that, kind of threw us for a loop. There were a lot of people in the church and staff that were upset, so it had to be sorted out and everything.

But we prayed about it, tried to see a way through and forward, and did for a while, but something else came up. They ended up hiring somebody who, a couple of years later, could have been me on paper. It was a lot of miscommunication and everybody was doing their best, but it made it much more difficult for me to have a place to use my gifts. And we had prayed about the idea of me investing in a different church community. But we were invested together in this.

Anyway, all of that to say that what I learned was so important: I had been dependent on a title and a paycheck to validate me. And that was not what God wanted. I needed to be rooted in my identity in Christ. And through this very long, painful, complicated several years, He walked with me and taught me that I couldn’t be dependent on anything external to validate me. I’m a beloved child of Christ and that’s not going to change. Anything else can change, but not that.

How have you been able to use your gifts?

We did a couple of different sabbaticals over the last 35 years. In 2011, we did one and spent a month in Africa, a month in Switzerland, we were in Italy, South America, I mean, we were all over the world. But because we were traveling around the world, people had said, you know, Laura, you really ought to keep a blog so that the church can keep up with what you're doing. So I did.

And when we came back after that time, I was like, okay, Lord, what now? And as I was walking one day, the story He brought to mind was Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. If you remember, Elijah has been being fed by ravens and the brook dries up and God tells him to go to the widow of Zarephath and get food from her. So he shows up and he asks her, please bring me some water and please bring me a loaf of bread. And she says, all I have is a little handful of flour and a little oil. That's all I have. And she says, we're just going to die, this is it. And Elijah says, no, go do it and God will make it enough. And God does. Nothing runs out.

And what I felt God saying to me in that time is, okay, Laura, what's your flour and oil? What is it that I have in your hands that you feel like is not enough? Well, I had been keeping this blog while we were on sabbatical. And so I was like, well, I can keep doing that and that's a bit of a ministry platform. So anyway, that was that step in that time.

What advice do you have for people on how to use their gifts?

I think many people look at their gifts and their talents and they're like, that's no big deal. They look at other people and they think, they've got so much going for them. But I love the verse that says, ‘Do not despise the day of small things.’ And I think one of the things that God has taught me is offer your little bit.

I mean, you may have a spiritual gift of encouragement or hospitality or teaching or whatever, but you also may have a car that can drive people places or you might have a kitchen, a home, whatever. But I think regardless, everybody can bring an invitation, a question, and a blessing. That's something that you can gift other people.

You can invite somebody into your home. You can invite somebody for a walk. You can invite somebody to sit with you at church. You can affirm somebody. You can write a note telling them what you see in them. You can ask them a question. You can say, wow, you are so good at gathering people in your home. How do you do that?

And so for me, I love gathering people. I love connecting them and that’s what I do mostly, trying to help people connect to God and each other.

What tips do you have for connecting with God?

So I often ask people to think of like the best invitations they’ve ever gotten, like what was the coolest invitation. And my spiritual director often asks a question that is hard to answer. She asks: What's the invitation of God to you today? Now, the invitation can be different in different seasons, but God's invitation every single day, no matter what, is to spend time with him. And if I had an invitation to have dinner with, I don't know, Taylor Swift or somebody, I'd be like, oh my gosh. But we have an invitation from the creator of the universe to spend time with Him.

But I feel like one of the overwhelming things for me is I'm so distractible. And the thing that has struck me is God is never distracted. He's never in a hurry. He gives me his full attention and his full affection when I'm aware of it and when I'm not. And I just pray, help me to be to you what you are to me. Help me to be as present to you.

But it’s hard. And it's so counterintuitive because it's like a discipline of grace. So it's a discipline of not being productive, but just being with God. It's like God is saying, ‘Just stand here and enjoy this with me.’

But I've learned I need to ask a lot more questions and sit with God longer than my first inclination might be. And to pay attention, especially when emotion comes up in you, when you feel threatened, when you feel angry, when you feel jealous, to take a step back and say, where is that coming from, Lord? Where is that coming from, and what might you have to teach me in it?

Listen to or watch the full conversation on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.

Thank you for being here,

Katharine

P.S. Eternal Echoes is free today. But if you’d like to partner with me in passing on faith and wisdom to future generations, I’d be so grateful if you consider supporting my work. I thank you truly, kindly and sincerely.

Eternal Echoes

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?