I was on Substack the other day when I saw a post that someone had made—I made a note about it on my Substack and you can read the full post (that the other person had made) here.

The post told a story about how a seventeen year-old boy began a Bible study at his house with his two friends. Over the next few weeks, it grew from three people total to twenty-three. Boys and girls read the Bible together, discussed the verses read, shared prayer requests, prayed over each other, and worshiped.

I loved reading this. It’s so unbelievably inspirational to see peers my age doing things like this—and I’ll be honest: seeing it start with three seventeen year-old boys? That just brings me so much joy and hope.

You see, the world that we live in is focused on so many things and it’s ever-moving, revolving, and changing. With things like trends, school, dating, college, work, sports, hobbies, and then people, we forget that there is a presence in our world that is ever-present, consistent, and never-changing.

That presence is slowly moving into the hearts of today’s youth and across all generations.

When we look at today’s Christian motivational speakers or content creators, a lot of them are Gen Z or millennials. They are so passionate about introducing the love of Christ to strangers, their friends and family, and the people who watch their content or hear them speak.

I think of people like Bryce Crawford, a YouTuber, speaker, and podcaster. He’s in his early twenties and is on fire for Jesus in a way many people have never seen before!

I look at women like Annie F. Downs or Sadie Robertson Huff, who direct their ministries to young women and teenage girls, struggling with their faith, body image, self-love, and trusting the future God has for them.

I am reminded of artists like Forrest Frank and Josiah Queen, who use their skills, hobbies, and abilities to share the love of God.

And then, we look at David, Mary the mother of Jesus, Jeremiah, and Samuel in the Bible. All these people were young when they were called by God:

~Samuel was a young boy when God spoke to him, calling Samuel to be a prophet. (1 Samuel 3)
~David was a teenager and the youngest of his brothers when he was anointed by Samuel to be the future king, chosen by God. (1 Samuel 16)
~Jeremiah was (according to his own words) ‘too young’ to be called by God, but then he became a prophet for the Lord, showing the Israelites hope in the midst of their exile. (Jeremiah 1)
~And Mary the mother of Jesus was likely in her teens, possibly early twenties according to the typical marriage customs when she was betrothed to Joseph and when an angel spoke to her saying she would be the mother of the Messiah.

These four young people in the Bible all grew up to do big things or be a part of big things. And it’s not the big things that they did that changed lives—it was their saying ‘Yes, Lord.’

They likely could have all said no—they have free will. But God told them, “I have chosen you.” I think that’s the coolest thing: in each of these passages, we read that God tells them something along the lines of “I chose you” and how on earth do you say no to that?

If God chose you, then He has a plan for what He chose you to do. It’s not left uncertain to Him.

But not everybody gets to be a part of a visibly ‘big’ thing, right? It’s hard having that comparison and then feeling as if you didn’t amount to what God had in store.

Well let me tell you: if you speak a bit of love into one person’s life, then you have done a big thing.

One thing I absolutely love thinking about is my small group leaders—they take two hours of their time every week to attend youth group, play a game, do some worship, listen to a message, and then talk with us. Now, that might seem easy, but when you’re a mom and have a job? It’s a lot I can imagine!

But these two women know (hopefully, because they should know this) that they are literally changing the lives of the girls in the small group just by showing up.

When they show up, and they invite us to talk, and they share their own struggles, and they give us love and wisdom, they are showing us that they really do care.

And by doing that, they have changed lives. Are they on a stage with thousands of people watching? No, but that’s because they don’t need to be. They are right where God has placed them and that is in the perfect spot—with the people who they love and who love them,

Same goes for the boy and his friends in this story: they took the time to invite a couple people and say, “Hey, I care about you and your story. Let’s learn about faith and grow together.”

And I guarantee that in the next few years, the kids in that Bible study will look back and say, “Wow. It changed my life more than they’ll ever know,” just like I look at my small group leaders and say, “Wow, they changed my life more than they’ll ever know.”

I actually have a prompt for you this week: and that is to either…

~Invite someone to do a Bible study with you. It could be recurring, it could be just this once, whatever. Go to a coffee shop, do it on a call, do it in your house or in the woods, whatever! And if they say no, that’s okay—you asked!

~Invite someone to church. Again, they can say no and that’s okay because you asked! Some people will say no, and that’s their choice.

~Share your faith with a friend. It doesn’t have to be a whole ‘here’s my ten-minute long testimony and I’m going to share every single good thing God has done for me’ thing. It can be a ‘yeah, I’m a Christian—*example of why you love Jesus here*’. All it starts with is a small opener and if they are interested, they can ask more about you and your walk with Christ.

I will also be doing this lil prompt, and next Tuesday I’ll add a note on the bottom of the post to update y’all and I’d love to hear your updates too!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys have a great week!
~Willow