Being faithful with a little

There's this verse in the Bible that seems to have somehow eluded me in practice for the longest time. Jesus tells the parable of the servants who are each given a certain amount of cash. Two of the servants invest what they are given, making more money for their master. The third servant freaks out about being responsible for his master's dough and buries it. When their master comes back later to see what the servants have done with the money, he is more than a little perturbed with the servant who buried the benjamins. The moral of the story is that if we are faithful to wisely use what little we are given, God will give us even more. You know, that whole "be faithful with what little you have and you'll wind up getting a lot" thing.
I've never been super-good at this. Each time I've had a ministry opportunity, I've jumped into something full-blown and thriving. I haven't have many chances to prove whether or not I can actually "be faithful with a little" and see something grow. However, in moving to Sacramento I've been opened up to a whole new world of opportunity.
I've been attending Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Sacramento since about mid-October, and I attended a home group for awhile. It was fabulous. There was food, fellowship, and abundant love for anyone who wanted some. But when it came time for the new semester, my class schedule dictated that I would no longer be able to attend my beloved Tuesday night home group. Darn those late-night graduate seminar classes!!! I didn't want to lose the amazing fellowship I had discovered in those precious couple of months, so I decided that maybe it was time to do something drastic. No, I didn't drop out of my Tuesday night class. Instead, I decided to listen to God and see what He would have me do with my Thursday nights that now just happened to be free.
What an amazing concept--listening to God. Sometimes I feel like I'm still a new believer, with the amount of time I actually spend LISTENING for God's voice.
So I listened, and in the listening I learned that there were NO home groups on Thursday nights. It also just so happened that there were NO young adult home groups. Period. Still listening....listening...listening...WHAM! SPIRITUAL SMACK TO THE HEAD!
"Andrea, why don't YOU start a home group for young adults?" "Me? No, couldn't possibly. I've barely been going to this church three months!" I went on like this for awhile, and eventually got tired of feeling like God was nagging me to start a home group, so I set up a meeting with Joedy, the Associate pastor who is also in charge of home groups. I shared with him openly and honestly that the major amount of my motives in starting a home group were purely selfish: I really just wanted people my age who were Christians that I could hang out with, and a home group seemed like a good way to make that happen.
The next thing I knew, I was leading a home group. I didn't really have a vision for the group, except that I wanted people like me (and unlike me) to be able to get together and fellowship. We started about a couple of months ago, and for quite awhile there have been only three of us attending. However, last week we had a wonderful new person join us, Jubilee. This week it was just the core three plus Jubilee. We had a little potluck dinner, some worship, and some fellowship. It was so wonderful. Even though the four of us who were there have only known each other for a short time, we were BLESSED to experience a sense of friendship and camaraderie far beyond the short months we've known each other.
Janna shared with us from the Bible tonight, and one of her main verses was the "be faithful with a little" verse. Without even realizing it, I've been proving myself faithful. I've been faithfully going ot this new group even when I know there will only be two or three of us there, and I've been cracking out my Bible and dusting off my guitar. I've been leading worship again. Writing Bible studies. I feel like I've discovered a new part of myself. I keep thinking, "oh, so THIS is what if feels like to be faithful with a little." And by being faithful I've been infused with a new faith and hope that the little I have will GROW, will FLOURISH. It's as though by going each week, I've been acting out my faith and in doing so, have increased that faith beyond measure.
God is doing something wonderful in my heart, and it's making me think that Sacramento's not so bad after all...