When we receive an invitation, someone is asking for us to show up. Sometimes the wording will even say “your presence is requested”. The invitation alerts us of an opportunity. It provides us a choice about where to allocate our presence. How to spend our time.

Circumstances are invitations for us to exercise the most fantastic choice available to humans. The opportunity of a lifetime. The one angels are buying popcorn to see, whispering about at their divine water-coolers. The opportunity to trust God through faith.

The invitations are pouring in. Day after day. It’s like the very beginning of the Harry Potter series when the invitations come flooding through the mail slot, the chimney, and every other opening in the house. We may try to shut them out, ignore them, or run away from them. But we cannot escape the fact that every day there are a myriad of opportunities calling us to exercise our faith.

Our presence is requested. Our choice is on the table. Some invitations will be messy. Some painful. Some full of joy. But in the end, it is up to each of us to respond to the invitation. To move our presence into the realm of faith.

There is no greater act a human can do than put their trust in God. Although our circumstances can be painful, they are all elaborate invitations to a life of faith. A request for us to show up. An alarm alerting us to the opportunity of a lifetime. There is nothing more significant for us than to decide what we are going to do about faith.

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.”
– 2 Peter 1:10