TeaTime Devotional October 20th, 2025

Written By: Dr. Byron Reeves

Let’s Play Tag

Scripture:  Romans 12:3 – KJV

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Testify:

We lost the village. What happened to it? I won’t say we all did, but the city I grew up in lost it. One of the reasons I feel so alive, engaged, and blessed today is that the projects, the city, my family, and my village prayed with me. It feels to me that society seems to be obsessed with being self-made. Self-care outweighs community care. Folks even throw God in the mix, acting like His blessings are proof they’re more favored than others. This theme of “tag, you're it” is, to me, a call for a lifejacket of community—that is, a community drowning in an ocean of individuals. The beauty of tag was that everyone played. You knew you’d be “it” eventually, but it mattered because being “it” in the community hits different. It meant connection, laughter, love, and belonging. I miss that—when we played and prayed together, not for personal glory, but for collective growth and joy. We need to shift from “it” to “us.”

Edify:

I can’t front; my faith in God has never wavered, but my faith in Christianity has been tested. I say that to keep it real, not holy. These verses—this chapter at large—feel antithetical to our current way of living: disconnected and spiritually idealistic. God’s vision seems to be community over individuality. Verse 5 says, “So we, being many, are one body in Christ.” That’s God’s vision. In this walk, we need idealism to strive in our everyday living. This verse asks us to remove selfishness, and that does not mean you lose yourself; rather, it means we can live out our gifts within the community. We can all be “it”: “So we who are many are one body in Christ, and individual members of one another.”

Apply:

So, how do we rebuild community? What pieces of your old neighborhood or village still feel possible? And what new tools, technology, awareness, faith, can help us build something better? Life won’t return to the way it was, but we’ve got everything we need to design a new village. Start small. Think about what’s applicable, then apply it, in the name of our Lord and Savior. I’ll start this apply, if you read this far, write “community” in the note under this devotion. I’ll start, “community” – Tag, you are it.