365 Meditations for Young Adults

311 Pages·2002·1.3 MB·English

by  Sally D. Sharpe

365 Meditations for Young Adults
Sally D. Sharpe, Editor
Esther Cho - Christian Coon - Christopher Cropsey - Richard Evans
- James A. Harnish - Elizabeth Hunter - Kwasi Kena - Mitch McVicker
- Barbara Mittman - Jason Moore - Julie O’Neal
- Harriet P. Willimon - William H. Willimon
Dimensions For Living
Nashville
Copyright Information
Introduction--What Do You Want to Be When You
"Grow Up"?
W
hat do you want to be when you grow up? It’s a question we heard a lot as
children, and it’s a question we continue to ask ourselves even as adults. Our
young adult years certainly are a time of “becoming”--choosing a career, getting
the education or skills we need, finding a job, discovering our place in life,
making our way in the world, and perhaps getting married and starting a family.
And all these experiences, many of which involve life-changing crossroads, are
extremely important. The challenge is to walk with God day by day so that we
may become all that God wants us to be.
This book is intended to help you do just that. As you make your way through the
year (whether you start in January or June), encountering a different writer or
writing team each month, you will find practical and spiritual insights,
encouragement, and a sense of camaraderie for the challenge of walking with
God day by day. Though the writers have diverse backgrounds and personalities,
there is a common theme among them: God is with us. It may seem obvious, yet
we’re so prone to forget it.
In all the changes and the challenges, in both the mundane and the mysterious,
in every moment of every day, God is with us. No matter where we’ve been,
where we are, or where we may be headed, God never deserts us. Though we
may try to hide from God or “go it alone,” we can’t escape God’s love. God loves
us from the cradle to the grave. And when we accept this love, we discover life
abundant.
It’s so easy to get caught up in striving to become something: educated,
employed, financially secure, physically fit, outstanding in our field, well-liked--the
list goes on and on. But, as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, all of these things
“are meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (1:14 NIV). There’s really only one
pursuit worthy of our full attention, our complete focus. A successful career
woman and mother expressed it so well. She said that it has taken her a long
time to decide what she wants to “be” when she “grows up,” but she thinks she
has finally figured it out: She wants to be completely God’s. That’s really what
life’s all about it, isn’t it?
Young adulthood is a time of change and challenge, a time of seeking and
searching, a time of exploration and discovery, a time of establishing deep and
long-lasting roots and relationships--in other words, a time of tremendous
opportunity for personal and spiritual growth. It is a time to walk with God and to
“become.”
The question is still a good one: What do you want to be when you “grow up”?
Sally D. Sharpe, Editor
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Esther Cho (NOVEMBER) currently is a student at the Harvard Divinity School,
working on an advanced degree in biblical studies. For three years she was a
minister at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
Christian Coon (MARCH) is the pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in
Deerfield, Illinois. Chris is a native Iowan and a graduate of Simpson College, the
Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and Garrett-Evangelical
Theological Seminary. He has written articles for various periodicals, including
The Christian Century and The Christian Ministry. He and his wife, Anne, are the
proud parents of their new daughter, Caroline Ruth. He enjoys running, following
the Cincinnati Reds, watching The Simpsons, and listening to Lyle Lovett.
Christopher Cropsey (JULY) spent most of his childhood in Mt. Juliet,
Tennessee, where his parents and younger brother still reside. Currently, Chris is
studying classical piano and youth ministry at Belmont University in Nashville,
where he is a Presidential Scholar and Honors Program participant. Previously
he has served the people of the Cumberland Mountains as a staff member for
the youth service mission trip Mountain T.O.P. In his free time, Chris loves to
play and listen to music, read, and watch sports. He also has been a contributor
to 365 Meditations for Teens.
Richard Evans (NOVEMBER) is a minister at St. Luke’s United Methodist
Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. He has a Ph.D. in pastoral counseling
from the University of Denver and the Iliff School of Theology, and is an emeritus
Supervisor of Clinical Pastoral Education.
James A. Harnish (DECEMBER) describes himself as “a Boomer who really
loves Gen-Xers.” His passion for ministry with young adults grows out of his
relationship with two Gen-X daughters and one son-in-law as well as the growing
number of young adults who share the ministry of Hyde Park United Methodist
Church in Tampa, Florida, where he is senior pastor. He is a graduate of Asbury
Theological Seminary and served three previous congregations in Florida. He is
the author of ten books including Passion, Power, and Praise: A Model for Men’s
Spirituality and Journey to the Center of the Faith: An Explorer’s Guide to
Christian Living. He and his wife, Marsha, have been married for thirty-two years
and are avid fans of the University of Florida Gators football team.
Elizabeth Hunter (OCTOBER) is a section editor for The Lutheran magazine
and a graduate student in education. She lives with her husband, Leslie, a youth
pastor, in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. They share interests in
spirituality, music, poetry, philosophy, theater, martial arts, and writing stories.
Kwasi Kena (AUGUST) currently serves as the Congregational Development
Coordinator for the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of The United
Methodist Church. Prior to this appointment, Kwasi and his wife, the Reverend
Safiyah Fosua, served as commissioned General Board of Global Ministries
missionaries to Ghana, West Africa, for four years. Kwasi enjoys teaching and
writing. He has taught various courses in communication, social science, and
religion at colleges and universities in Oklahoma and Iowa. He is the author of
three books: The Resurrected Jesus; In Plain View of the Cross; and 40 Days in
the Wilderness: Meditations for African American Men. He also has been a
contributor to 365 Meditations for Teens, and 365 Meditations for Families. Kwasi
writes regularly for teens and young adults with Urban Ministries Publications,
Inc.
Mitch McVicker (MAY) is a Christian music singer/songwriter who began as a
supporting guitar player and vocalist for Rich Mullins. They traveled, performed
concerts, wrote songs together, and were roommates for two-and-a-half years
before the tragic accident that claimed Rich’s life and severely injured Mitch.
During his year-long recovery, Mitch wrote many of the songs on his new
release, Chasing the Horizon. He says the songs are an expression of “where he
was” during that year and of what God has done in his life and the lives of those
around him. One of the songs, “Burning the Fields,” is about renewal, which is
the theme of his devotions. “Coming to renewal,” he says, “isn’t necessarily an
easy or comfortable process. It’s gonna hurt; it’s gonna burn. But we are being
remade into what God would have us become.” Mitch grew up in Topeka,
Kansas, and has been living in Nashville for three years. He travels much of the
year, which gives him plenty of time for listening to music and “the quiet.” When
he’s not on the road, he likes to watch movies and sports and just do “nothing.”
Barbara Mittman (SEPTEMBER) is an ordained deacon in full connection,
certified in Christian Education and youth ministry. Barb currently serves as one
of the pastors at First United Methodist Church in Ames, Iowa. Previously she
has served on conference and local church program staffs. She has written
church school curriculum for youth and was the author for two volumes of 20/30
Bible Study for Young Adults. Barb, her husband, Bob, and her daughter, Katie,
live in Nevada, Iowa.
Ellen Mohney (FEBRUARY) is a graduate of the Baylor School of Chattanooga,
Tennessee, where she received the Jumonville Award as Best All Around
Student and the Herb Barks Award for the Most Representative of the School’s
Spirit. Currently a sophomore at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama,
she is preparing to be in full-time youth ministry. She has worked as a guide at
The Rock at Ute Trail Ranch, a Christian camp in Colorado, taking high school
youth on backpacking trips in the Rockies. Her interests include all sports,
especially soccer, track, hiking, and mountain biking.
Jason Moore (JANUARY) is a Director of Christian Education at a church in
Taylors, South Carolina. Previously he has been a summer camp counselor and
trip leader and a high school English teacher. He has written articles for various
periodicals, and his poem “Memory” is included in the National Library of Poetry.
Jason says that writing is an extension of himself--not in some flighty,
metaphysical way, but in how he grapples with the doubts, problems, and
questions of life. It allows him to dig deep within, as one might with a scalpel, and
pick, pulling back the protective folds to see what he truly believes.
Julie O’Neal (JUNE) is a student at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas
City, Missouri. She has been involved in all levels of The United Methodist
Church, from the local church to the General Boards. She is a member of the
Shared Mission Focus on Young People (a general church initiative), and has
contributed to Devo’Zine, a magazine produced by the Upper Room. Julie’s
home is in Scottsdale, Arizona, where her parents, two younger brothers, and
younger sister live. She enjoys journaling, music, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
Harriet P. Willimon and William H. Willimon (APRIL) have collaborated on
many projects through the years. Harriet is a young adult and a psychiatric social
worker at Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, South Carolina. She holds
recent degrees from Wofford College and the University of South Carolina.
Currently she is living in Charlotte, North Carolina. Will, her father, is Dean of the
Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University, Durham, North
Carolina. He preaches on most Sundays to students in Duke University Chapel,
where he also leads the programs of campus ministry. He is the author of more
than sixty books, many of them written for young adults.
January--Living From the Center
Jason Moore

January 1 Into the Chaos
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth
was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the
deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
--Genesis 1:1-2 (NKJV)
M
rs. Susie was my second-grade teacher. She taught math and science, and
she had a wonderful way of simplifying complex theories, of fitting the universe in
a paper sack. Maybe that’s why I can still remember my first science project--a
mobile of the solar system.
Looking back, there wasn’t much to it: two clothes hangers taped into an “x,”
some string, nine foam balls colored like the pictures in our encyclopedia, and a
big orange cardboard sun in the center. I used different sized balls for the planets
and connected them carefully to the hangers. When I was done, I put it in a
grocery bag and went to bed. The next morning, however, I reached into the bag
to find a jumbled mess where my mobile had been. The string was tangled and
the planets were in the wrong places. Worst of all, when I pulled the mobile out,
the sun was in the bottom of the sack.
I’m twenty-three now, and though I don’t worry with science projects anymore,
my life often seems as tangled as that second-grade mobile. There are days,
weeks even, when nothing seems to work out right, when it seems that life is
spinning out of control. This is where God comes in. For just as the sun holds the
planets in place, so also a life with God at its center is one of peace and grace
and order--one lived in the proper perspective.
Living from the center means living a life that is focused on God. This, however,
is not an easy task. We are a busy people, easily distracted. So we must daily
refocus our attention. In the days to come, as I reflect on the commonplace, I
invite you to look beyond the surface, to see metaphors in the simple things, to
see how you might come to live from the center.
Prayer Focus: What does it mean for me to live with God at the center?
January 2 Above the Noise
The LORD is near to all who call on him . . . in truth.
--Psalm 145:18 (NRSV)
During my first two years in college, I lived on the sixteenth story of the tallest
building on campus. For some reason it was quieter up there, as if everyone had
talked themselves out on the long elevator ride--or worse, had endured thirty-two
flights of stairs. But for whatever reason, there was a stillness up there, a kind of
separateness seldom interrupted.
There was no one above us, so you never heard footsteps thudding or
floorboards creaking. And I can remember so many nights up there, typing away,
as my roommate slept, in almost absolute quiet save for the clicking of the keys.
Even with him there, I felt completely alone. Sometimes, however, I would grow
tired of the quiet, so I’d throw the window open to hear the sounds of the city
below, which were so different from those of my youth.
The tracks were only a stone’s throw from my dorm, and every night around 4:00
A.M., the train would let out a moan and come rumbling by, rattling the windows
and calling me from my reverie. The whole room seemed to shimmy, and it
amazed me that something so far below was not only heard but also felt.
But let’s face it, most of us don’t live above the noise. We’re in it. Thus, living a
life from the center means finding a way to follow God’s will even in the midst of
all the crazy racket. And this requires a new perspective: You see, God is not like
I was, tucked away in some room in the sky. Rather, God is like the train,
rumbling through the center of our lives, calling us away from our selfish desires,
offering us a better way to travel through life.
Prayer Focus: Where do I hear God calling me to get involved?

January 3 Better Days
For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing has come.
--Song of Solomon 2:11-12 (NKJV)
It was late afternoon and the beach was all but deserted. I was standing barefoot
at the end of the pier, watching as the umbrellas disappeared one by one. The
wind was warm and salty, and I sat for the longest time, watching the breakers
tumble and roll, clawing softly at the sand below. Closing my eyes, I could feel
the sun warm on my face, the pier gently swaying, the subtle stinging of skin
made tight from salt and sun, as a feeling of peace washed over me.
I often think of that summer day when life seems overly gray, when the winter
doldrums have gotten the best of me. And I wonder if the disciples did the same
thing. In those days after the crucifixion, as reality began to sink in, I wonder if
they remembered better, brighter days, when they walked with Christ and felt the
warmth of his love.
I guess that’s what I’m doing now. When my soul seems cold and frosted over, I
think of warmer days when my walk with Christ was closer, when sunshine
seemed to flood my soul. Those memories bring me hope and comfort, for I know
that no season lasts forever. And that’s what living from the center means: we
accept that there are times in our journey when we feel lost, cold, forsaken.
Nonetheless, we keep walking, knowing that eventually we can say once more,
“The winter is past....The time of singing has come.”
Prayer Focus: How close do I feel to God today?

January 4 Faith in the Dark
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. . . . By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out.
. . . And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
--Hebrews 11:1, 8 (NKJV)
Sometimes I wake up in the night and don’t know where I am. It’s a strange,
unsettling feeling. There in the dark, with the alarm clock staring coldly back at
me, for a moment at least I am afraid. Bars of light pass dimly through the blinds,
painting a dark web of shadows along the wall. The ceiling creaks and moans;
the bed seems alien--not my own. And as I fumble with the lights, it takes some
time to get my bearings, to remember where I am.
Usually, it only takes a minute or two to piece it all together. I flip on the lights,
and the mystery’s solved. Still, it’s not the dark that frightens me--or sleeping in
strange places. It’s the unknown. Yet this is a fear that confronts us daily--not
only in the dead of night, but also in the daily circumstances of our spiritual lives.
How often do we look around, entangled in the trappings of our lives, and
wonder, Where am I? or How did I get here? And it’s this feeling of being lost,
this fear of the unknown, that can paralyze us if we let it.