THE FIRST FIFTEEN CHALLENGE

REV. BRET COGAN

The times they are a changing!

How many of us heard as we entered the work force the inspirational maxim, “Dress for Success!” I suspect this phrase lost its impact quite a while ago. If any shred was left, the COVID pandemic, which forced us to work from home and discover something called Zoom, sped its demise! But still the idea of finding inspiration to begin our day is something I suspect we all can benefit from. This summer we began what I called “Going Deeper” with a daily scripture, a short reflection, and a prayer. I hope you were able to spend some time with this tool and it gave you some encouragement, insight and maybe even a little inspiration! As I said, we all need inspiration, and that is why we are beginning The First Fifteen challenge. It will look and feel familiar to those of you who have been using the "Going Deeper" daily readings. The primary difference will be how we are asking you to use the First Fifteen daily readings.

If you are like me, the first thing you do when you wake up is look at your phone, check your email, and read the headlines from various news feeds. If you are like me, you are also aware, depending on what you find, your day may or may not begin with much of anything that feels like inspiration. The First Fifteen Challenge invites you to take the first 15 minutes of your day, Monday through Friday, and spend it with God by reading a daily scripture, a short reflection, and a daily prayer. These readings will be shaped to help prepare you for worship since they will be guided by the topic of the sermon each Sunday. They will also help us, as a congregation, begin our day by taking a few moments to focus our lives, give thanks to God and ask for God’s guidance for our day. Fifteen minutes is all we are asking you to set aside. Fifteen minutes to invite God into your life may be the inspiration we all need to live more fully into who we are at Centenary UMC as we learn to live and love like Jesus!

Learn more by visiting our website.

https://www.centenary-ws.org