Here several of the most important truths about Christian life are contained in one sentence, truths that we must spend years coming to understand through our own experience. We do not realize right away that the fullness of Christian life is revealed not in satisfying our growing needs, whether material or spiritual, but precisely in serving others, in helping satisfy their needs.
Then a good deal of time goes into finding our own path of service. We try different versions of what we have seen in others, become disappointed, and lose heart, until we discover what was always right under our nose: the very thing Peter writes about, serve with the gift you have. Then we begin to "bother" everyone around us with this gift of ours, forgetting that it is not ours but given to us, and not for our self-realization but for service. And when we realize that the gift is from God, we begin to judge everyone from the point of view of whether they have been endowed with this gift or not.
Only after we have done a great deal of harm and lost many people who were once close to us do we come to a humble recognition of the manifold grace of God and become able to accept a small part in God's stewardship: the building of the Church, the one Body of Christ, out of unique "stones" that are unlike one another.
