God Loves an Invitation 08.29.2025

Today’s Reflection

Truth be told, we continued most of our regular youth activities at church. But I came to see them as subversive acts, vehicles that I hotwired to smuggle Christ into culture. It’s not that God needed me to do that; Christ still enters the world without a shred of help from me. But it is also true that God loves an invitation; given an inch, God takes the mile, rushing into the world through any crack we pry open for the Holy Spirit. I tried mightily (if haltingly) to get my own practices of prayer in order so that I could honor with real depth the prayer requests of these young people. I found excuses — lunch at McDonald’s, hammering nails during a service project, long walks of consolation — to ask youth about their prayers and about what they thought God was up to in their life. Every single teenager willingly talked.

—Kenda Creasy Dean, Ron Foster, & Megan Dewald, The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry, Revised Edition (Upper Room Books, 2022)

Today’s Question

When have you noticed God entering a “crack” in your life or someone else’s life? Join the conversation.

Today’s Scripture

The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.—Acts 13:52 (NRSVUE)

Prayer for the Week

I am no longer my own, but thine.Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.Put me to doing, put me to suffering.Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,exalted for thee or brought low by thee.Let me be full, let me be empty.Let me have all things, let me have nothing.I freely and heartily yield all thingsto thy pleasure and disposal.And now, O glorious and blessed God,Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.And the covenant which I have made on earth,let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.—A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition from The United Methodist Hymnal