June 1, 2026 – Daily Devotional
My son, Brooks, recently graduated from the University of Oklahoma. It was a weekend I will not soon forget. The celebration, the pride, the noise of family gathered around a moment that had been years in the making. But somewhere in the middle of all of it, I found myself thinking about the road that led there — the long nights, the hard semesters, the moments when finishing must have felt far away. And I thought: he made it because he kept going. And he kept going because somewhere along the way, someone had spoken words into him that held.
At his graduation party, Brooks stood up to thank those who had come. He told the story of being asked a simple but searching question: “Who pours into you?” And then, looking out at the faces in the room — family, friends, his church family — he answered it. These were the people. The ones who had spoken life into him, believed in him through the hard stretches, and stayed close enough to matter. Everyone there knew exactly what he meant, and most of them knew, quietly, that they had been poured into by someone too.
Words that hold. That is what the angels offered the women at the empty tomb on that first Easter morning. They had come expecting grief and found instead an absence that defied explanation. And the angels did not give them a new message. They gave them an old one: “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise” (Luke 24:6–7). The instruction was not to look harder or search further; it was simply to remember.
There is profound power in that. When the moment is disorienting — when the path ahead is unclear, and the ground beneath feels uncertain — God’s first invitation is often to look back. Not to stay there, but to draw courage from what has already been proven true.
Joshua received the same gift on the edge of the Promised Land. God did not give him a detailed strategy for what lay ahead. Instead, he said: “Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9). The boldness required for the next step was rooted entirely in the faithfulness already demonstrated. God’s track record was the foundation. Memory was the fuel.
St. Luke’s has its own record to remember. More than 135 years of God showing up — in this city, through this congregation, in ways large and quiet and everything in between. There have been seasons that required more faith than certainty. Moments when the way forward was not obvious, but the community chose to trust anyway. And every single time, God was faithful to what he had promised.
That same faithfulness is what propels us now. The work God is doing in and through this congregation is very much alive — growing, sharing, serving further into the lives of people hungry for exactly what we have to offer. What a gift it is to be part of a family of faith still very much on the move. And what a comfort to know that the God who has never once failed us is the same God leading us forward.
Brooks made it across that stage because of the people who poured into him — and because he held onto what he’d been told. We will make it to what God has prepared for us for the same reason.
Remember how he told you. Then take the next step.
Chris Lambert, Director, Meals on Wheels Oklahoma City
