By Abbey Adcox
This past week, our Youth Choir traveled to Chicago to serve, learn, sing and be present. What we didn’t fully expect was how deeply we would be met.
We met Dilla, a self-proclaimed B-list Chicago celebrity, YouTube-famous and brutally honest. He asked how many of us had been told we’d be shot in Chicago. Then he told the truth. He shared the history of the South Side and Emmett Till and the danger of flattening people and neighborhoods into stereotypes. He challenged us to be truth-tellers — to reject single stories and see the full humanity of others.
We met Pastor Joe and Kadie at Roseland Christian Ministries, whose mission is to serve Jesus by caring for whoever is right in front of them. Their faith is authentic, and they minister with dignity, tenderness and relentless hope.
We met the neighbors of Roseland — those who gathered each day for a warm meal and community. Our youth served, sang and shared smiles and stories. In that space, the Spirit knit us together. We weren’t just volunteers and recipients. We were companions. The line between guest and host blurred, and in its place, communion.
And just as meaningfully — we met each other. Some of us were already close. Others connected for the first time. But something holy took root over meals, bus rides, tired mornings and silly moments. We saw each other with new eyes. We noticed. We listened.
In his poem “At the End of the Day: A Mirror of Questions,” John O’Donohue asks, “Where did your eyes linger today?” This is a question for reflection but also worship. Where our eyes linger — on a neighbor, a story, a sacred moment — often tells us where our hearts are being drawn.
So come to worship with open hearts.
Come remembering what you’ve heard.
Come ready to meet God again.