So What? Night (03/12/2026)

Last night was my last official class with confirmation candidates and their parents or sponsors. And I focused on what I always have over the years on the final class. I asked them, candidates and sponsors, to answer the question “So what?” What difference has their shared journey made in their lives? How are they different from the people who showed up for the first class?

Over the years, I have found that so many show up for the event because someone is taking attendance, but they miss the experience. When we do that, we are present but not open. The LORD so wants us to allow life and this journey to inform our minds, to help us lovingly conform ourselves to Christ and sacrifice what we may want for what is needed in the moment and relationship, and to reap the transformation that comes through grace on this journey. So, during class, I asked the candidates to revisit the survey I asked them to fill out on the first day of class concerning where they were on their spiritual journey. I asked them to share with the adult accompanying them if there had been a change and what it was. And then I asked the adults to share with the youth how accompanying them had impacted their own faith and journey.

Life needs reflection for it to sink in. And so much of what the LORD is doing in us, with us and through us, we don’t notice in the moment. So many times, it is only in the rear-view mirror that we recognize the change.

But there is another point of the “So What?” question night. Now that we know what we know from this time together, what will we do differently? How will we be different? How will we act differently?

I ended by admitting to them all that I wasn’t really there so much to teach them as to help them form their questions and prayerfully embark on their spiritual journeys. The LORD gives us life. What we make of it is our gift in the gift exchange of divine design.

As we continue our Lenten journeys, let us stop weekly to ask ourselves, “So what?” What difference is this journey making in us? How are we changing? How are we growing? How are we becoming?

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.