Split Screens
In 2015, the Kansas City Royals went to the world series and won. That was the last time they played in the post season. Until this year.
In 2017, the Kansas City Chiefs went 4 and 0 to start their season. Despite their post season success, that was the last time they started so strong. Until this year.
Tonight, the Chiefs and the Royals are playing at the same time.
For those of us from Kansas City…our attention will be divided. We will all spend an evening with split screens.
But no matter if you are from KC or not, we live in a world that is so distracted, attention divided between so many things. Most of our “time saving” devices and efficiency technology has actually caused us to waste more time in meaningless distractions and never give anything our full attention.
As I’m writing this, my computer keeps giving me notifications about “tips” to use it better, calendar and news alerts, and my phone updates me about weather, amazon deliveries, and my sons’ grades at school.
And…I have most of my notifications and updates always turned off because I get easily distracted.
I think we are likely getting so used to distractions, that many of us rarely have times when we aren’t staring at a screen (or multiple ones at the same time), multitasking, thinking about other concerns and worries, and giving nothing our full attention. This is often knowingly or unknowingly done to make ourselves feel productive, accomplished, happy, fulfilled…or maybe disconnected or distracted from reality or formulate our own reality.
As C.S. Lewis says,
“Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
We are all living with split screens.
As people who are following after Jesus, there is a calling that even in the midst of lots of worries, anxious producing times, busyness, and distractions we are called to seek God and God’s Kingdom first.
In Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount after he has just mentioned worrying about basic necessities, he says in Matthew 6:33.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
The call is to seek the Kingdom of God first…and Gods righteousness. Though that greek word for “righteousness” is “dikaiosuné” and is the same word as “justice”. When we seek God’s kingdom, when we live out the Kingdom of Heaven here and now, first and foremost, when we strive for justice and righteousness, many of the things we thought mattered, many of the distractions that consumed us, the things we prioritized fall by the wayside and simply do not matter in light of God’s glory and grace. They no longer hold value in the same way or at all.
Over the weekend, we rewatched Inside Out 2. If you haven’t seen it, essentially you are in the mind of the main character, Riley and tracking with her emotions as she navigates life. A Herman’s Head for a new generation. The first one followed the 11 year old as her family made a major move across the country. The second one tracks with her as she crosses the threshold into high school as a 13 year old. Not giving anything away, but the movie is riddled with the complex emotions and relationships a teenager has to navigate. I told Sarah after we watched the movie, “they created a story that was void of digital distractions. I’m impressed they showed a responsible handling of phones and technology in this movie.”
Sarah responded…“Do you not remember, they went to camp and they took their phones away from them.”
In a fictional movie about a girl navigating life and friends and the onslaught of emotions, distractions, and worries…instead of just telling that story…they had to remove phones so that the story could play out.
Now, maybe a phone isn’t your constant distraction…but it could be your 24 hour news channel, your social media of choice, your job, your (fill in the blank). When we have something that we constantly fix our eyes on, it is hard to fix our eyes on Jesus.
This doesn’t mean we should be disconnected, uninformed, off the grid, apathetic people. Not even a little. What it means is we should have clear boundaries, clear thoughts on how and when we do things, centered around and stemming from our faith in Jesus.
This may seem simple, but if you spend time, real time, in prayer and scripture reading, silence and solitude, listening for what God has for you, praying for the Spirit to guide you, and working to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, it will fundamentally change the way you see and live in the world.
John Wesley once noted,
“I have never known more than fifteen minutes of anxiety or fear. Whenever I feel fearful emotions overtaking me, I just close my eyes and thank God that He is still on the throne reigning over everything and I take comfort in His control over the affairs of my life.”
Do you know that some of the greatest revolutionary leaders and movements that have happened in the world, have often been led by people who were first and foremost seeking to follow after Jesus and because of that solo devotion, they could not stand by, but had to work to end slavery, to fight for civil rights, to establish hospitals and systems of education.
If we try to fight the problems of this world, not coming from a faith rooted in Jesus, we will be so distracted, we will not turn to him. We will strive for a utopia void of our God. As Mark Sayers says, “A Kingdom without a King.”
But, if our desire to live out the sermon on the mount, because we are rooted in Jesus first and foremost, the outpouring of our life will care for others, love others, welcome others, and proclaim the Kingdom in all that we do.
We believe that as followers of Jesus, transformation will happen when we abide in Jesus, are changed by him, and embody his ways for the glory of God and the good of others.
Let us be attentive people of faith. Attentive to the one who made us, who redeems us, and who sustains us. And let that attentiveness see our calling in this world and attend to those in need.
I hope you will continue to join us in our journey to release distractions and anxiety and find hope and rest in our King and the Kingdom.
- Please note, it is Fall Break, so we have lots of people in town. As well, the roads in and out of Seaside will be closed during the daytime and only Savannah and Pensacola will be accessible to get to The Chapel from 10am on. So for the Noon Prayer Hour, it will be slightly challenging to get in and out, but if you take Savannah or Pensacola in and out, you shouldn’t have issues. This is a great week to walk or ride your bike if you can.
- The usual Tuesday noon hour prayer time is tomorrow. This week, 30A Prays has teams of people around town praying for people and they will be joining the prayer hour tomorrow. So, it will be a lovely time if you can make it. You are not required to pray out loud or do anything, you are invited to join in an hour of prayer. Come if you can.
- Bible studies are in full swing. Our Men’s Study on Wednesday meets from 8am-9am. We’ll be in Exodus 10 and 11 this week. The Women’s Study on Wednesday meets 9:30am-10:30/11am.
- Our young adult/20’s and 30’s group meets on Thursday mornings 8am-9:15am. They are also studying Exodus. This week, we’ll be in Exodus 19.
- We are excited to share we have a new addition to our sermon podcast called “Chapel Study Notes”. If you haven’t check it out yet, it is a Bible Study recap led by me and Sarah team teaching what we covered in the previous week’s Wednesday Bible Study. The newest episode is accessible on Spotify here, Apple Podcast here, or wherever you stream.
- We have secured parking on Sunday morning with Seaside. If you haven’t gotten that information yet, will you please let us know and we’ll send you the passes. Email us at [email protected] or [email protected].
- If you are out of town, under the weather, or just need to worship from home, you can watch our live-stream on our website, thechapelatseaside.com, on our Facebook page, Facebook.com/TheChapelAtSeaside and our Vimeo page, Vimeo.com/thechapelatseaside.
Other upcoming things.
- Sunday, October 20th – Chapel Lunch following worship.
- Sunday, November 3rd – Communion at 9am at The Chapel, followed by coffee and pastries. Worship like normal at 10am.
- Sunday, November 17th – Night of Worship led by Daniel Pratt and friends.
I hope you have a great week and I look forward to hopefully seeing you at Bible Study, Prayer or at worship on Sunday. Let us know if you have any questions and we look forward to seeing you this week. Center your heart, your mind, and your life on the one who made your heart, who renews your mind, and who transforms and guides your life.
Blessings,
Andrew.