A Long Journey

This past week we went to Disney World.  Sarah and I both hadn’t been in about 25 years or more.  I remember the wonder and magic, the rides and more.

It’s grown, it’s changed, and you no longer stand in incredibly long lines.

Don’t worry, there are still lots of strollers, lots of Mickey ears, lots of tears and exhaustion…and some kids are crying and exhausted too, lots of hopes and expectations, and lots of credit card debt.

But now there are also virtual lines, and lighting lanes, and queue groups, and magic genie plus on a Disney World app that tells you wait times if you do stand in line, and gives you directions to where you want to go, and ability to make reservations, and mobile order food and it was my room key and more.

In some ways, this feels almost nothing like the park I went to 25 plus years ago…and yet in other ways it is oddly familiar.  It’s just grown up.

Sometimes when we step into faith at a young age, we experience the wonder of faith, the grace of God the father, the love of Jesus, and the comfort of the Spirit…but as time goes on, either our faith grows, it matures, it changes and becomes deeper, richer, and more meaningful.   It guides our life and decisions, it causes us to care for others, to live more selfless lives where we lay down our lives for others, as Christ did for us.

Or, for many of us…the faith we stepped into is nearly the exact same, it experiences an arrested development.  But it no longer guides us and the way we live and love…we now use it to justify our beliefs and behaviors, to dismiss others, or take things out of context to elevate our personal or political agenda…instead of letting our faith be the driving force.

See many of us, before we stepped into faith we were once a round peg in a round hole world, but our faith transforms us to be a square peg…still in a round hole world.  It’s hard at first, but it seems worth it…so we try to navigate what it means to be this new person that is alive in Christ, learning to follow after him, even though we may not seem to fit in the world around us.

But slowly over time, those square edges get worn down again to become smooth rounded corners that fit seamlessly in a round hole again.

Left to our own devices we will become like the world around us.

Following after Jesus, we will become more like him.

Our faith is not a one time decision, it is a life long journey.

If we are going to be the kind of person that doesn’t just choose Jesus as a kid or in college, but follow him throughout our lives, we have to do just that;

Follow him.

Every day.

Sarah and I got married 19 years ago.  If we had a wedding, shared vows, exchanged rings, filled out paperwork…and then never did anything else to grow in our marriage…we would be roommates with a shared bank account.

If we expect to have a thriving marriage, we have to invest in it, grow and learn.

So what does this look like in our faith?

It looks like knowing the life and teachings of Jesus, wrestling through the meta narrative of scripture, doing what Jesus did, and living and loving like he lived and loved.

It’s listening for the movement of the Spirit, trusting in the comfort and responding to the conviction we will inevitably experience.

It’s showing grace, forgiveness and love to others, like God the father has shown to us.

It’s surrounding yourself with people who are journeying in the same direction who are both like you and different than you.  You cannot expect to understand people’s differences in perspectives, if you don’t know people with different perspectives.

These things, practices, and ways are not what saves you, it is the amazing incomprehensible grace of God.

These ways of living are not legalistic ways to make God love you more or get on Jesus’ good side, they are investing in what matters, making the most of the time we’ve been given, partnering with God for the transformation of the world.

When we were at Disney, I realized, you don’t have to use the app, or the fancy magic band, or any of those things.  You can just get that ticket, cross the entry, and experience Disney.  That entry is open to everyone.

But, if you want to make the most of it, you lean into what is offered, and those will drastically change your experience.

Our faith does not require us to do the suggestions above, you can just trust in Jesus and call it a day…but why?  Why would you not do what Jesus did and calls for us to do?  Why would you not take on the life and lifestyle of Jesus?  Why would you settle?

If you do the ideas above, and other things like it, as you follow after Jesus, you will start to look around and the faith you stepped into years earlier will seem almost nothing like the faith you have today…and yet in a wonderful way it will be beautifully familiar.

That is our hope at The Chapel.  We hope to help guide you and support you, to provide direction and resources so that as you follow Jesus you will be formed in his likeness.  That you will abide in him, be changed by him, and embody his ways for the glory of God and the good of others.

Over the next several weeks, we want to give you a bit of the vision of The Chapel.  We want to share some of our hopes and dreams and what we prioritize.  We want to comb through scripture, see what it said to the early people of faith then, and what it means for us today.  So no matter if you are here every week or you are just visiting this weekend, I promise, what we look at over the next several weeks will be important for all of us who call ourselves Christians.

I look forward to worshiping with you and sharing a bit of vision and what we’re all about.

• Like always, we have prayer at noon on Tuesdays at The Chapel.  It is a wonderful and simple time where The Chapel partners with 30A Prays and we get to spend about 60 minutes simply to pray and be with God in the beautiful Chapel.  Come and go as you need.
• This Sunday, August 4th we will share in communion at 9am.  If you haven’t been before, it is a simple communion service where all are welcome to share in bread and juice as we remember Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection, and what that means for us now.  It’s just a 15 minute or so service, followed by coffee and pastries in the Grove area outside between the services.
• Our normal service will meet again at 10am.  I am excited to be back preaching this week.
• The following Sunday, August 11th we will have a blessing of kids headed back to school.  It will be a lovely morning where we will bring them forward, pray for them, and those that are attending Kids Church, will head off to that.  After Service we will have a short gathering to celebrate the kick off of the school year from about 11am-noon.  It will be a great morning.
• Bible studies will kick off later this month, the week of August 21st and 22nd.  We’ll send more info about that soon.

Let us know if you have any questions.

The crowds are going to slow ever so slightly and though it will not be immediately, the temperatures will start to drop soon. So thank you to so many who have helped make room, provide water, and cared for others in this busy and hot time of year. If you can still help out, below are a few ways to help out when it is so hot.

• We are still providing water bottles for people sitting outside on Sunday.  If you are willing to help with this, click this link and sign up for a Sunday or two to help out.
• To sit inside, you really need to be at The Chapel by about 9:40.  It usually fills up by 9:45am.
• We stream our services, so if it is too hot or you want to make space for others, you can worship online from our church website, thechapelatseaside.com and from our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/TheChapelAtSeaside/.
• Our sermons are usually available the same day on our website and likely wherever you stream podcasts.

I look forward to seeing you this week.

Blessings.

Andrew