by Andrew Beard | Feb 11, 2025 | Words from Pastor Andrew
A few years ago we went to Italy and my kids, who already loved pasta, became even more infatuated with it. Most of us eat the store bought kind…but once you have real, homemade fresh pasta…it’s really hard to go back. So a few months back, they wanted to make some homemade pasta. We didn’t have a proper roller, but we made it work anyway. Then for Christmas we got a pasta maker and my kids have been working on creating unbelievable homemade pasta.
Making homemade pasta isn’t incredibly hard, it just takes a bit of time and effort.
I once was congratulating a friend for getting their PHD and they said all it is, is having Patience, Humility, and Discipline.
I’m sure it’s more than that…and I don’t think that’s what PHD stands for, but I haven’t looked into it.
by Andrew Beard | Oct 23, 2024 | Words from Pastor Andrew
Several years ago, Sarah and I shared one account for our phones. That way we could share music and pictures and everything else stored on our phones…to be honest, we didn’t realize almost two decades ago that all of our life would be on our phones…that didn’t even occur to us.
The problem with sharing one account is, occasionally, for no reason we completely understood, some of our texts, calendars, emails and other things would show up on the other persons phone without going through a series of menu options to change that or stop it from happening.
We maybe didn’t send the initial text or send the initial email or initial calendar invite and yet, we had this bit of information that was intended for someone else and we were seriously confused.
Have you ever tried to understand a conversation with only reading one side of it?
Whether it is sitting there listening to someone talk on their phone, but have no idea what the person on the other end is saying.
It is very confusing.
by Andrew Beard | Oct 7, 2024 | The Tower
The Holiday Season is quickly approaching. See all that is happening at The Chapel this fall and Winter.
by Andrew Beard | Oct 7, 2024 | Words from Pastor Andrew
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.
by Andrew Beard | Sep 30, 2024 | Words from Pastor Andrew
The other day we were at our kitchen table and I asked who wanted to pray before breakfast on Sabbath. My son, Keating, said, “I will”. He then launched into The Lord’s Prayer. The whole thing…
“Our Father…Thy Kingdom come, they will be done…Forgive us our trespassesas we forgive those who trespass against us…”
He ended and we all said, “Amen.”
He then started again…
“Our Father…Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done…Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors…”
My son, prayed The Lord’s Prayer twice, so that he could include two of the predominant ways people say that prayer in the Christian tradition. How ecumenical and welcoming he is.
