By Shawn Flory Replogle
One: 24 hours. Maybe a few more hours than that, but not many. Essentially a day.
Two: That’s how much time is left of this National Youth Conference.
One: This is officially the beginning of the end. Not THE end. Just the end of this event, this place in time.
Two: We will never be gathered as this same group of people ever again: not the same youth…
One: … not the same advisors…
Two: … not the same staff.
One: 24 hours. One day.
Two: In that 24 hours we could be sad about it coming to an end…
One: It IS kind of sad. I’ll miss new friends. I’ll miss this tremendous view. I’ll miss… well, everything!
Two: …OR, we could think of these 24 hours as a gift!
One: A gift? How?
Two: Well, it’s not five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes — that’s a year.
One: I get it, you’re talking about how many minutes are in a day. Let’s see. The math of that is …one thousand four hundred and forty. We have about 1500 minutes left in NYC 2026.
Two: 1500 minutes to show love.
ALL: 1500 minutes to receive love.
One: 1500 minutes to care for someone.
ALL: 1500 minutes to be cared by someone.
Two: 1500 minutes to shine the light Jesus offers.
ALL: 1500 minutes to prepare for shining our lights back home.
One: How will we measure our lives in that time?
Two: What will do with the time ahead of us?
ALL: 1500 opportunities, all in our reach.