ICYMI: Holding It Together 2 // Growing Up
If you missed Sunday's service or could use a refresher, here's a quick recap featuring sharables and takeaways from our gathering. Scroll to the bottom for the full sermon recording.
📖 Focal Scripture
🎯 Reflection
We've been sold the myth that growing up means learning to do everything alone, but the truth is far more beautiful: we were created for connection. When anxiety and isolation tell us we're the only ones left standing, God draws near through food shared, presence offered, and the reminder that thousands of others are walking the same path. The powers that be want us divided and alone, but healing comes in the small, sacred moments of moving toward one another – in casseroles, in silence, in solidarity.
🗣️ Key Quotation
“The Montgomery bus boycott wasn’t about not getting on the bus. It was about helping each other get to work without the bus every single day for months on end. The Freedom Rides and marches on Washington weren’t about speeches and parade routes. They were about the preceding years spent mobilizing student groups and neighborhoods in small, regular collectives of everyday activists… Knowing your neighbors’ names, dog-sitting for them, bringing casseroles—these do not make for good content. They are non-controversial. They are made of things with substance. And I am begging you to remember that that is what makes them so powerful.” — Lyndsey Medford
🙏 Prayer
God of persistent presence, whose very nature is community, break through our isolation with your fierce and tender love, so that we might see the thousands who journey alongside us; through the Spirit who holds all things together. Amen.
💡 Journaling Prompts
When was the last time I felt completely alone? What helped me get through it?
What's one thing you're trying to handle all by yourself right now?
Where do you find community in your life right now?
➡️ Next Step
This week, lean into connection by reaching out to three people in your life who need it. A simple text, call, or note can counter isolation, just as God showed Elijah he wasn't alone. After each connection, reflect on what felt easy or challenging about the experience.
