Devotional for February 14th: 

Scripture: 1 Corinthians12:14-21

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many members, yet one body. ²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ ²²

Who are young adults? I don’t know how many times I have been asked this question or wondered it myself. No matter how many times I have attempted to wrestle with this question, I still don’t have a clear answer. Young adults can include anyone from a recent high school graduate to someone in their thirties. A young adult can be single, engaged, married, divorced, a parent, a student, a professional, unemployed, and the list goes on and on.

The last young adult church retreat I went on included people from all of these categories/life stages and I believe the retreat was better because of it. From this experience, I believe it is when we embrace our diversities, that young adult ministry can be so vibrant. In the same way, our churches should also celebrate diversity, because diversity is a characteristic of our unity as the body of Christ. We are many members, but one body.

Loving God, your creation is so diverse, yet bound together so harmoniously. As young adults, help us celebrate our differences so that we may practice a fuller understanding of our unity in you; through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Rebekah Cypert Krevens

Irving North Christian Church

Devotional for February 13th 

Dear God,

This is not a formal declaration of praise

This is not a prayer that I say because I am obligated to as a Christian

This is a love letter

…a letter to my deepest and most trusted friend

…a letter to someone who dwells constantly in my heart

…a letter swelling with my heart’s softest and most vicious yearnings and concerns

God I’m kind of lost, unsure, dysfunctional

I’m sorry for things I did and things I didn’t do

I’m unsure of who I am or who I’m supposed to be, who you want me to be

God, there’s so much I have to tell you

It starts bubbling and fermenting inside of me

I begin to feel queasy, earnest, excited, eager

I can’t wait for the question that every parent asks their child after school, after work, after a long journey: How did it go?

Those four words warm and comfort me, so I share everything thing with you from the smallest minute detail to the biggest most exciting extravagance, never stopping to catch my breath. And you sit there patiently the entire time, smiling, laughing, grunting, crying with me.

Your love is a beautiful thing, a truly remarkable thing, an irreplaceable thing, an undying thing.

I want to cry out:

            Please don’t leave, don’t go, let me have you just one moment more.

You chuckle warmly every time, looking me not in the eye, but in the depths of my very soul and calmly reply, “I will never leave you,” and those universally parental words, “I will never stop loving you.”

So, lord, this is a love letter

…a warm embrace, a kind smile, a familiar comfort

Amen.

Have you ever written a love letter to God? What does it sound like? Were you angry, sad, happy, afraid, excited, lonely? Did you send it out with the hopes that you would receive a letter in return? Or did you mail it doubtful that it would ever reach its final destination? No matter what, a letter is a beautiful thing, something people save and remember years after it is sent, until the parchment literally turns to dust in their hands. Remember the power of a love letter and joy that it holds, for words never die.

If this concept interested you, look up the song Love Song for a Savior by Jars of Clay. Its message coincides with this devotion and with the idea that love, specifically God’s love, is a truly beautiful thing.

Submitted by:

Dominique McGowan

Young Adult Commission Member  

Daily Devotional for February 12:

Psalm 25:4-5 (New Revised Standard Version)
 ⁴ Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
       teach me your paths;
 ⁵ Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
       for you are the God of my salvation;
       for you I wait all day long. 

Devotion

So often, when people talk about Christianity, they speak of the One Path, the One Way:

God’s Way.  And while this kind of talk is good-intentioned, it can also be disheartening. 

Our lives seem so different, so unique…especially as young adults. 

We go to school – or we don’t.

We are in relationships – or we’re not.

We have kids, or we want kids, or can’t have kids – and some of us don’t know for sure if we want them at all.

We have careers, or jobs to pass the time and pay the bills until we find careers – or we can’t seem to find a job of any kind (part time or otherwise).

There are so many paths that our lives can take.  So many twists, detours and changes in direction are a part of the journey – and sometimes when we are traveling through life, talk of THE RIGHT PATH gets so frustrating that we get tired of even thinking about God… faith…church. 

I know that in my own twisty-straw journey, just a few years ago any talk of THE RIGHT PATH left me feeling utterly forsaken. My relationships just weren't working out, I was doing my best to follow God's call to ministry but had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. Choices were often laid before me like forks in the road, but they weren't easy choices because each option was good.

"Do I go to Europe and work for a Christian student organization? Do I stay where I am? Do I accept this offer from a different church in a different state?"

All were viable possibilities. All were doing God's work. But I couldn't do all three - and in the midst of it all, folks kept talking to be about God's one path for my life.

Ultimately, I made a choice. And I am quite happy with where I am - I have an amazing husband, I'm serving in the midst of vibrant ministry, and we are serving God. I can smile and say with authenticity that I have no regrets.

But, I still think that goodness and service and grace lay on the other two paths. I knew it then, and that's what made the choosing so difficult. 

That’s why Psalm 25 speaks to me and rings true.

In this plea for direction, the psalmist sings of God’s paths.  God’s ways.  And that pluralization is important!

For while there are certainly paths that are dead-ends, ways that lead us far from God’s hopes and dreams for our lives, there are also many that are right. 

And, as the psalmist indicates, if we are open to God’s teaching and we are patient as we listen for that still, small voice – God will help each of us to find a path that suits us while also suiting God.   

Prayer/Benediction

May God bless you and keep you as you embark on the next steps of your journey – and may you find peace, energy and encouragement knowing that you walk with the Creator and Teacher of many paths and many ways!Amen. 

Submitted by:

Lara Blackwood Pickrel

Young Adult Commission Member

Kansas City, Missouri

I’m 26 years old and I cannot remember life without computers. I can’t recall a world without a 24 hour news cycle and  I don’t know what it feels like to have information and news not available to me where and when I want it. In my opinion, it’s not true and it didn’t happen unless I’ve gotten a news alert on my mobile phone. At least, that was my thinking a month ago.

The afternoon of January 12, 2010, my phone vibrated with news that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake had rocked the small island nation of Haiti. I had gotten similar alerts regarding hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and other natural disasters occurring around the globe many times before. Those events all seemed so far removed from my world. However, this time was a bit different. You see, a few months ago, my mother felt God’s call into mission work. This call led her to Haiti on a mission with 10 other Tennessee Disciples and on that horrible day she found herself in the center of Port-au-Prince with devastation and destruction all around her. The news of the earthquake sent me into a panic until my phone buzzed again minutes later bringing news from my church: the group was “okay”. This allowed me to breathe, but it didn’t satisfy my thirst for knowledge or my craving for up-to-the-moment confirmation. I checked CNN,  Fox News and the local news websites. I checked Facebook and Twitter, just hoping for an update. Something. Anything. I just needed more confirmation than the group was “okay”, but all of my usual information pipelines were useless and failing me.

It was at that moment that I came to the realization that my faith had been rerouted. Somehow in the midst of a world with endless information streams and countless avenues of confirmation, my faith had gotten soft. I had gotten used to faith in conjunction with verification. Faith is easy under those conditions. Then again, that’s not really faith. Hebrews 11:1 clearly defines faith as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. I was in crisis. How could I reroute my faith to the path that it needed to be on? How could I believe without the tangible evidence? I decided that the solution was simple: trust God’s word. God’s promises and past works should be more than sufficient.

A sense of calm and contentment immediately flowed through my being and I felt complete. There would be no more combing the news outlets for updates on the tragedy. There would be no more anxiety. Three days later, I wasn’t thanking Anderson Cooper as I embraced my mother at Memphis International Airport, I was thanking God. To paraphrase and add to one of my favorite passages from Psalms: Some trust in horses and others trust in chariots. Some trust in MSNBC and others trust in Facebook, but I trust in the name of the Lord my God.

Who do you trust?

Submitted by:

Jeremy DeWitt

Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church (DOC)

Memphis, TN

Scripture: The Parable of the Lost Sheep

                                    Matthew18:12-14 (New International Version)

There has always been a negative connotation associate with this word lost. Growing up I remember my parents could not stand being lost on road trips. Before my family of six would pile up in the car and head out on a vacation our route would be plotted out in detail. The miles would be calculated and the expected travel time would be predetermined, all to avoid any stress or anxiety that comes with being lost while traveling.

As I have moved into my young adult years I cannot even count the numbers of times I have felt lost either personally, spirituality, or professionally. There is this stigma in our society that we have to know who we are, what we are doing, and where we are going at any given moment.  The first question you are asked after a graduation is, “So what are you going to do with your life now?” People just don’t seem to accept the answer of, “I’m not sure.” The word lost quickly becomes scary because being lost also brings the concept of the unknown. Suddenly we do not know what to expect we are flying blind and relying on (gasp!) faith. Being lost changes our lives.

In our fast past productive culture we are use to having our questions answered at our fingertips. But in our lives as Young Adults, the answers don’t always come that quickly. Sometimes we wait for a while, and a lot of the time we spend feeling lost. Since the concept of feeling lost is viewed so negatively we can quickly feel like we are failing.

But the truth is we are never lost. Jesus tells us in the Parable of the lost sheep that each of us is cared about by God as we should care about one another. Although we may feel lost at certain times in our life that is when we must rely on our faith that in God was are found. Sometimes we stumble upon our true calling in the lost moments of our life as we are wandering aimlessly. The truth is God is in our lost moments with us, calling out to us to find our true way. Wandering is not always pointless, and being lost is not always a negative thing.

Gracious and Holy One,

Please guide our feet as we stumble in our lost moments of Young Adulthood. Help us to celebrate these moments of holy wandering by drawing closer to you to discern our true purpose in life. Leave us with the humbling acknowledgment that we are never truly lost for we have already been found in your grace and mercy.

Amen.

    Submitted by:

Katie Sexton

Young Adult Commission Member

Phoenix, AZ