The Connection Corner

A daily source of encouragement and inspiration to connect your heart to hope and faith.

Life Is Better Together

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 – Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!

When I was twenty-two, I packed up my life and moved to Alabama for Bible school. I pictured calm mornings reading my Bible, a bit of solitude, and space to figure out my life.

Instead, I got fifteen roommates.

You see, one of the dorms across campus was still under construction so they packed all of us under one roof. I don’t know if you can picture that many men in a six bedroom house, but it was wild.

The walls were thin so there was always noise— laughter, footsteps, someone playing music way too loud. There was no real privacy, no way to escape the chaos, and I just had to keep reminding myself this was temporary.

At first, I was frustrated. I couldn’t retreat into myself like I was accustomed to. But little by little, that crowded house started to change me.

Our resident advisor, Dougie, led weekly Bible studies that became the heartbeat of our little house. We prayed together, wrestled with truth, joked through exhaustion, and reminded each other to keep showing up.

In between the noise and the shared meals and the endless laundry, something steady was forming — a kind of community I had never known before.

I could not isolate myself when I wanted to, but I actually found that was a good thing. Other people were always there for me — just like Scripture teaches, ‘Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.’” Instead of retreating, God had put people in my life I could talk to when I felt insecure, aggravated, or ashamed. And it made all the difference.

Two months later, when most of the guys moved out, I felt something I did not expect — grief. I had come to love that loud, messy, inconvenient community. It had shaped me. It sharpened me. And it taught me that life is not meant to be navigated alone.

It also reminds me of how the first followers of Jesus lived — the way they shared everything, broke bread together, prayed side by side, and carried each other’s burdens. There was beauty in the simplicity of it, in how natural it was to belong to one another.

That picture from Acts has always stayed with me. They were people doing life together too. They were finding joy in the mess of faith and friendship.

Looking back now, I wonder: when was the last time I truly leaned into the discomfort of biblical community and let it shape me? And maybe the better question is: what might happen if I did it again? And I hope you will ask yourself that too.

A MOMENT TO REFLECT

When has God used community to encourage or challenge you in a season when you wanted to be alone?
Who in your life lifts you up when you fall — and how might you do the same for them this week?
Are there areas where you’ve been trying to handle life on your own that God might be calling you to share with someone?
What makes true biblical community both messy and beautiful?
How can you be more intentional about leaning into the kind of connection that shapes your faith?

November 13, 2025/by David Hall

How God Uses Broken Things

Daily Devotional, Linda Meyers

1 Corinthians 1:27 – But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

Chris bought Kevin’s old van mostly because it was cheap. Kevin had warned him about the radio. “It’s stuck on the Christian station,” he said, handing over the keys. Chris just laughed. He was not looking for inspiration—he was looking for transportation.

When he turned the dial that first time, the radio worked perfectly. The speakers crackled to life with a familiar guitar riff. Zeppelin. Chris grinned and rolled down the window. The wind rushed in, the road stretched ahead, and for a moment, everything felt right.

A week later, bills caught up with him. He had to sell the van back to his friend.

The next day, Chris got a phone call. It was from Kevin.

“You won’t believe this, but it’s stuck on that same station again.”

They both agreed it was hilarious and odd. “What a coincidence” Chris thought. But what happened next was impossible to shrug off.

His friend with the radio began to change. Slowly at first, but he stopped drinking so much. He started showing up to his kid’s baseball games. He became calmer, and his voice started to carry something new— hope, maybe.

Chris began to wonder if that stubborn radio had been tuned by more than human hands. Maybe it was no accident at all. Maybe that old van had been waiting for Kevin all along.

He could not shake the thought. Because the same man who once cursed at traffic was now humming along to worship songs in a rusty van. He could see now that God uses even broken things to reach people who are running out of road.

Maybe that is the miracle we often miss. God still moves through the most ordinary parts of our lives. The conversation you almost skipped, the interruption you found inconvenient, the thing that did not go your way. Each might be God’s gentle way of drawing you closer.

So don’t dismiss anything He’s doing. As 1 Corinthians 1:27 reminds us, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”

Perhaps today is worth slowing down and asking, “How is God trying to get my attention? What might He be trying to reach me through?”

A MOMENT TO REFLECT

When has God used something unexpected—or even inconvenient—to get your attention?
Is there a situation in your life right now that feels small, foolish, or broken, yet might be exactly where God is working?
How does this story remind you that God’s power doesn’t depend on perfection or strength?
Who in your life might need encouragement to see that God can work through ordinary or imperfect things?
What would change if you started looking for God in the interruptions instead of trying to avoid them?

November 12, 2025/by Linda Meyers

Lessons From the Grocery Store

Daily Devotional, Sarah Hall

1 Corinthians 15:10 — But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out His special favor on me — and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by His grace.

The smell of warm bread and cleaning supplies still takes me back. Not to a bakery or my grandmother’s kitchen, but to the grocery store where I had my first job.

I was sixteen, awkward, and half-asleep most mornings. It wasn’t glamorous work. I stocked shelves, bagged groceries, and spent more time wrestling shopping carts than I care to admit.

I remember thinking, “This is just a paycheck.” But over time, that little grocery store became something else entirely.

There was the older cashier, who called everyone “Honey” and could calm the crankiest customer with a wink. There was also the manager who never raised his voice but somehow made you want to do better. And there were the regulars — the ones who showed up every Thursday for bread and milk, or just to talk to someone who’d listen.

I started to notice things I’d never paid attention to before. The tired dad who worked night shifts still finding a smile for his kids. The widow who counted out change in nickels and dimes but left the last cookie sample for someone else.

That store taught me more than I ever imagined. About patience. About showing up when I didn’t feel like it. About giving my best, even when nobody noticed.

It reminds me of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.” I can see now that every small task, every moment of showing up, was God’s grace quietly shaping me from the inside out.

Funny thing — I thought I was earning money, but I was really learning character. The kind that gets built one small choice at a time, in ordinary places with sticky floors and fluorescent lights.

Sometimes I wonder if that’s where God does His best work — right there in the middle of the everyday, quietly shaping us while we think we’re just bagging groceries.

Maybe the same is true for you. Maybe the thing that feels small or unseen is the very thing God is using to grow you. The ordinary work. The thankless task. The daily faithfulness that nobody applauds. He is in all of it—teaching, refining, and shaping you in ways that only become clear later.

So wherever you find yourself today—keep showing up. Keep doing the next right thing. Because even in the most ordinary corners of life, God is writing something extraordinary.

A MOMENT TO REFLECT

Think back to your first job or a season that felt ordinary. How did God use that time to shape your character?
How does it change your perspective to realize that grace can be at work in small, everyday moments—not just big, spiritual ones?
What part of your daily routine might God be using to teach you patience, humility, or compassion?
Paul said God’s grace toward him “was not in vain.” How can you live today in a way that lets His grace bear fruit in you?
What’s one “ordinary” task this week you can approach as worship—doing it with gratitude, knowing God is in it?

November 11, 2025/by Sarah Hall