Day 1 (Monday):
“The 29% Who Made the Connection”

Remember that game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”? It was inspired by a 1960s experiment where people tried to get packets from the Midwest to a Boston stockbroker by sending them only to people they knew personally. The idea was to test if we’re really all connected by just a few social links.

Successful packets took an average of six steps. We’re all connected! But the more interesting part of the experiement was that of the 24 packets that succeeded, 16 went through the same person. Researchers called people like him “Master Connectors.” They don’t just have lots of connections. They know how to bridge gaps between different kinds of people.

Scripture: James 1:19
Additional reading: Proverbs 18:2 – “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”

When James writes “be quick to hear, slow to speak,” he’s calling us to become Master Connectors, not megaphones. Our culture rewards volume. Social media trains us to broadcast opinions immediately to everyone. But what if that’s exactly backwards? What if the reason we’re failing to change hearts on divisive issues isn’t that we’re not speaking loud enough, but that we’re not listening well enough?

Master Connectors build relationships across divides. They engage individuals, not crowds. They ask questions and actually listen to answers. They create dialogue, not monologue.

The world has enough megaphones. What we need are more Master Connectors who care enough about people to actually hear their stories before speaking into their lives.

Reflect: Are you trying to broadcast your views to the masses, or connect one-on-one with real people who disagree with you? Who is one person you could listen to this week?

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Day 2 (Tuesday):
“Make Sure It’s Your Ideas That Offend”

You know what’s harder than being right? Being right in a way that actually helps someone see the truth.

California’s Penal Code defines murder as “the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.” But then it adds an exception: “This section shall not apply to any person who commits an act which results in the death of a fetus if the act was solicited, aided, abetted, or consented to by the mother.”

Wait. So if a drunk driver kills a pregnant woman and her unborn child, he’s charged with two murders. But if the mother chooses to end that same life, it’s not murder—it’s a right?

Scripture: James 1:19-20
Additional reading: Proverbs 15:1 – “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

That legal inconsistency is glaring. When presented calmly as a genuine question—”Help me understand how we reconcile these two things”—even people who support abortion rights have to wrestle with it.

But here’s the key: how you say something matters as much as what you say. Greg Koukl writes, “Always make it a goal to keep your conversations cordial. Make sure it’s your ideas that offend and not you, that your beliefs cause the disruption and not your behavior.”

James commands us to be slow to speak. Not silent—slow. Thoughtful. Patient. Strategic. We speak truth, but we do it in a way that invites dialogue rather than shutting it down. We stay on point. We don’t let anger creep into our tone. We care more about the person hearing us than about winning the argument.

When you lose your temper in a conversation, both sides lose. But when you speak truth with patience and respect, you keep the door open for the Holy Spirit to work.

Reflect: Think about a recent conversation where you spoke truth but damaged the relationship with your tone. What would it look like to apologize and try again?

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Day 3 (Wednesday):
“If You Get Mad, You Lose”

Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow him. Imagine someone falsely accusing you. Mocking you. Spitting on you. Beating you. Nailing you to a cross while gambling for your clothes.

You’re completely innocent. You have every right to be angry. Every right to call down judgment. Every right to defend yourself.

What would you do?

Scripture: Luke 23:34
Additional reading: Isaiah 53:7 – “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Not “Father, judge them.” Not “Father, give them what they deserve.” But “Father, forgive them.”

This is why James writes, “Be slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” When we get angry in conversations about divisive issues, what do we accomplish? We make people defensive. We confirm their suspicions that Christians are judgmental. We close off future dialogue. We give them a story to tell about the angry Christian who attacked them.

There’s a difference between righteous grief and sinful anger. It’s right to grieve the tragedy of abortion. It’s right to feel sorrow over lives lost and women deceived. But that grief should make us more compassionate, not more combative. It should make us slower to anger, not quicker.

The cross is the ultimate example of patience and controlled response to injustice. Jesus embodied everything James commands. And the same Spirit who empowered Jesus to remain calm in the face of injustice lives in you.

Be passionate enough about truth to remain calm. Because when you lose your temper, you lose your witness.

Reflect: What issue or person most quickly triggers anger in you? How might the Holy Spirit be calling you to respond with patient grief instead of reactive anger?

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Day 4 (Thursday):
“The Mirror Test”

James gives us a strange illustration. He says someone who hears God’s Word but doesn’t do it is “like a man who looks intently at his face in a mirror and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”

Scripture: James 1:22-25
Additional reading: Matthew 7:21 – “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Yet that’s exactly what we do. We hear sermons about being quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. We nod our heads. We agree it’s true. Then we walk out and immediately resort to our default pattern—quick to speak, slow to hear, quick to anger.

James says true religion isn’t just hearing the Word. It’s doing it. It controls the tongue. It cares for the vulnerable. It refuses to be stained by the world’s methods.

So what does that look like practically? It means we don’t just argue about abortion—we actually help women in crisis pregnancies. We support adoption. We volunteer at pregnancy centers. We open our homes. We give financially.

It’s easy to be against abortion. It’s harder to actually care for the vulnerable women and children affected by it.

Pure religion puts feet to convictions. It looks in the mirror of God’s Word and then lives out what it sees. It doesn’t walk away unchanged. It perseveres as “a doer who acts.”

The world doesn’t need more Christians who just talk about loving the vulnerable. It needs Christians who actually visit “orphans and widows in their affliction.”

Reflect: What is one concrete action you could take this week to care for someone vulnerable—not just talk about caring, but actually do something?

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Day 5 (Friday):
“Getting to the Main Thing”

Here’s where it gets uncomfortable: abortion isn’t the main issue.

Stay with me. Abortion is a tragedy. It’s a symptom of something deeper—hearts that don’t recognize God as the author and sustainer of life. It’s a worldview that says humans get to determine the value of human life.

Scripture: James 1:21
Additional reading: 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

James writes, “Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” The implanted word—the gospel—is what actually saves. Not our arguments. Not our rhetoric. Not our anger.

If you win the abortion argument but the person’s heart doesn’t change toward Jesus, they’re still lost. They’re still dead in their trespasses and sins. But a person who meets Jesus and is transformed by the gospel will eventually come to see the sanctity of life.

This is why we must keep the main thing the main thing. Yes, speak up for the unborn. Yes, engage the abortion issue wisely. But don’t make abortion the main thing. Make Jesus the main thing.

And here’s the grace: if you’ve had an abortion, been complicit in one, or handled this issue poorly by being the angry Christian who damaged relationships—there is forgiveness in Jesus. The same Jesus who said “Father, forgive them” from the cross says that to you.

The cross doesn’t just forgive—it transforms. When you receive Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit who gives you power to actually live out God’s commands. To be quick to hear when your flesh wants to speak. To be slow to speak when pride wants the last word. To be slow to anger when injustice makes your blood boil.

You can’t do this on your own. But you can do it in Christ.

Reflect: Have you made any issue—even a good one—more central than the gospel? What would it look like to reorient your engagement around pointing people to Jesus first?