August 30, 2024 | Dan Low

Serving as a class shepherd for the kindergartners in our Vacation Bible School. Volunteering at the Torrance Memorial Medical Center on my day off. Enjoying monthly lunch conversations with a handful of our most senior adults. Learning to play pickleball with Helen.

I am so grateful to God for each of these new experiences. Before venturing out to do any of them, I had to be willing to say YES to something NEW. That’s not always a given. With countless opportunities that vie for our time and energy, it’s more natural to have a default reply that says NO because we’re already busy. We may feel like we’re already living on the edge with little margin for anything else. So we are quick to decline.

Being a faith community who seeks God’s righteous kingdom first means keeping a close tab on our real priorities (not what we ought to be doing, but how we’re actually investing our time, energy, talents, and money). If a close friend did an honest audit of our calendar and finances, what would they learn about our values?

As we take inventory of our daily commitments, I want to encourage you to say YES to something NEW (which may require us to scale down or even step back from something we’re currently doing).

Saying YES to something NEW:
• stretches us as a learner and student
• connects us with different kinds of people
• draws us closer to those we already know
• enables us to utilize our God-granted gifts (talents, time, treasures)
• blesses us as we endeavor to do whatever God desires wherever he leads
• propels us as an example who motivates others to also say YES to something NEW

In light of our built-in tendency to instinctively and automatically decline an opportunity that’s presented to us, let’s be more like the prophet Isaiah who hears the voice of the Lord after seeing his glorious holiness and eagerly says, “Here I am! Send me” (6:8). That’s what it looks and sounds like for us to say YES to something NEW.