Well, it’s graduation season, and in Iowa, that means Grad Parties.
There’s something very poignant about walking past photo display boards where parents try to sum up an entire childhood. There’s no snapshot or slideshow that can adequately convey a person’s story. But if you were lucky enough to walk through life with this young adult for the past 18 years, the experience is different. You remember that Christmas they had the chicken pox. You heard them at their third grade piano recital. You signed their cast after that fateful soccer game.
You don’t need a picture book. You shared life with them. You really know them. That is a relationship that is real and rich and rare.
I want to invite you to try something this summer. And although I can already hear you thinking, “I’m too busy” or, “I don’t wanna” before I’ve even asked you…I’m gonna ask you anyway:
This summer, I’d like to invite you and your kids to invest in real and rich and rare relationships. And I don’t mean with Jesus, because that should be a given. I mean with other people who need Jesus. And I don’t mean someone you could merely invite to camp or to church (although, yes, please do!).
I have prayed that the Holy Spirit has already given you a name or a face.
Have them over. To your house. Get to really know them. Don’t just take your kids to the pool to meet friends. Have those kids over to your house afterward for popsicles. Don’t just let your kids go to the neighbors to play, ask the neighbor family to come over to your house for s’mores. Don’t just go out to the movies with friends. Have friends come to your house for dinner and a movie. Instead of constantly sliding into the privacy and comfort zone of your own home and your own family, be courageous and intentional and a little bit self-less and invest in people by inviting them over.
What if every one of God’s people made new friends with one non-believer this summer? Actual, “come on over to our house” friends. Real life, “can I borrow your extension ladder” friends. Or maybe even, “my daughter is defiant and I don’t know what to do” friends. How might the Holy Spirit work through that? A movement like that would definitely be real and rich and rare.
Consider yourselves invited. And challenged.
I hope you have a great holiday weekend. Say a prayer of thanksgiving for the courageous blood that was shed for your freedom. And if you go to any grad parties, I pray it will remind you to use this summer to invest in others by simply inviting them over.
Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. 1 Thessalonians 2:8.
Love,
