Day Thirty

TELL SOMEONE

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

—HEBREWS 10:24–25 NIV

At my home church, high school students host and run the middle school retreat. It’s a really neat experience. A few years ago, I was an adult leader, and we were at one of those retreat centers that have cabins and bunk beds and two showers for every twenty people. It was as rustic as you are picturing.

On Saturday night of the retreat, I crawled into my little twin bunk, which was shoved up next to another twin bunk, and closed my eyes. It wasn’t thirty seconds later that I felt someone tap my shoulder.

Because we are a people who love to prank, I was sure I was about to (1) be sprayed in the face with some sort of liquid or (2) get to participate in pranking someone else. Instead, it was Mallory, a senior helping lead the retreat. She was just a few months away from graduating and heading off to Auburn University.

Mallory asked me to scoot over, so I did. I was worried—was something wrong? Mallory stared up at the springs on the bunk above us. Light from the moon barely snuck in through the curtains, but it was enough for me to watch as she was obviously wrestling with something in her heart.

That little glow of courage was growing in her heart for days, maybe weeks.

“I don’t want to go to Auburn,” she whispered, and I heard the tears dripping onto my pillow. I waited, thinking she had more to say. When she didn’t, I responded.

“Okay, Mal. You don’t have to.”

“I think,” she stammered slowly, “I want to be a missionary. I want to go to YWAM.” Her voice was still shaky.

“Okay, Mal. You can do that.”

Mallory didn’t begin her journey toward courage right there. That little glow of courage had been growing in her heart for days, maybe weeks. And then in the hours and minutes before she actually got up out of her bed, it grew feet, didn’t it? Feet that led her to tell someone.

Do you want to be brave? Tell somebody you want to be brave, and then see what God can do.

BE BRAVE: Call a friend today. Take him or her to lunch or coffee or meet up and go on a walk. And when y’all are chatting, tell your friend that one brave thing that you haven’t said out loud yet.