“What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.” // Acts 17:23
For more than forty years I’ve ministered to young women, and I’ve witnessed the rise and fall of so many trends—Britney to Taylor, Yeti to Stanley, skinny to slouchy, Snapchat to TikTok. It doesn’t take a Harvard degree, or media analytics, to understand the ageless and underlying need for someone or something to make our lives happy and meaningful.
I love Saint Paul’s approach to evangelization in today’s First Reading (see Acts 17:15, 22–18:1); it is as relevant today as it was back then. To help others meet “the God who made the world and all that is in it” (Acts 17:24), we begin as Saint Paul did, with the fundamental assumption that we are made for more, created to worship God and give Him glory. All our human desires, which we so often look to be fulfilled through the created world, are only a dim reflection of our Creator. “Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25).
Many years ago, a young woman I knew asked me a great question: “What do you have that I don’t? Because whatever it is, I want it!” Through the witness of our lives, personal stories of His goodness, and the proclamation of the One True God, we can help others recognize that it is
“ . . . [i]n him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Trends will come and go, but God is unchanging. May we be compelled by a sense of urgency to lovingly remind others that “God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent because he has established a day on which he will 'judge the world with justice'” (Acts 17:30-31). As we step out in faith and boldness, may the results of our endeavors be like Saint Paul’s: “ . . . some did join him, and became believers” (Acts 17:34).
Debra Herbeck is a Jewish convert to the Church who serves extensively in youth and women’s ministry. She has directed Pine Hills Girls Camp for 40 years and counting, and is the Founder and Director of Be Love Revolution. She and her husband have four children and twelve grandchildren. She is a contributing author to Blessed Conversations: Dwell and Misericordia and the author of the Blessed is She 2026 Lent devotional Who Do You Say that I AM? Find out more about her at renewalministries.net.
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