Do you remember Vacation Bible Camp as a kid? The songs that got stuck in your head for weeks, the theme that showed up on t-shirts and banners and construction paper crafts? This year at Resurrection, our VBC theme came with its own chant: G-O-A-L. It’s our time to go out and love. We built it around a soccer theme, goal, go out and love, and it stuck with me long after the kids went home.

Our theme verse was 1 Corinthians 13:13. “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” The Amplified Bible describes love as true affection for God and for humanity, growing out of God’s love for us and in us. That’s a good definition. But I keep coming back to the question underneath it. What does it actually look like to go out and love? To go out and love our neighbor, specifically?

I’ve come to believe it looks like going out and doing justice.

I’ve been thinking about what that means for us as Americans, especially with July 4th, 2026 marking two hundred fifty years since our nation’s founding. I’ll be honest, I love this country. I appreciate the rights and freedoms we have. That doesn’t mean I always agree with how we use them, or with the direction our leaders take us. But I hold onto the value of the Constitution and the rights it guarantees every one of us, including the right to make our voices heard.

So how do we actually do that? We go out and talk to our elected officials. We go out and advocate for people who don’t have a platform to speak for themselves. We go out and work to right the wrongs we see. We go out and vote.

Let your voice be heard. Don’t sit back and assume it doesn’t matter. Don’t sit back and let someone else carry the weight of speaking up for you. Go out and love. G-O-A-L. It’s our time to go out and love, and to do justice.

Amen and amen.

▶️ CLICK HERE to watch Pastor Cheryl’s Minute of Justice video on YouTube