by Andrew Beard | Jul 29, 2024 | Words from Pastor Andrew
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.
by Andrew Beard | Jul 15, 2024 | Words from Pastor Andrew
Sarah and I used to work with college students. One day Sarah was talking to one of the students and they said they had never made macaroni and cheese. Sarah asked, “how was that even possible?”
This student said, “I’ve always had someone do it for me, so I’ve never learned.”
We went home and taught our 4 and 5 year olds to make Mac and Cheese.
by Andrew Beard | Jun 19, 2024 | Words from Pastor Andrew
If you have kids or grandkids or employees or maybe even pets, you likely have thought about saying something you think is really important, you shared that seemingly vital message, and then you wonder, did they even care?
Did that make any difference?
Regularly, I preach a sermon and I wonder…
“Did anyone benefit from that?”
Now, I don’t need people to send me encouraging words…or worse, tell me,
“Actually, no. No one benefitted from that…”
But I do wonder this sometimes.
by Andrew Beard | Jun 4, 2024 | Words from Pastor Andrew
“Ummm…Brian…I kicked a hole in your door.”
“What? No way. You’re just trying to get me to open up.”
“Nope. I’m serious.”
I then laid down, because I was starting to crash coming down from the rush of adrenalin and sobering up to the reality of the trouble I was going to be in when my parents got home. So I closed my eyes and hoped that when I woke up, it would have all been a dream.
When I was a kid, I was described as “having lots of energy”. I was energetic, emotional, gregarious, and on occasion, known to be angry. Now let me state, I was the instigator of most of the chaos and typical scuffles between me and my brothers. I liked to poke the bear and get attention. Also, my older brother, who is much more cool, calm, and collected than I ever was or will ever be seemed to like to watch me spiral out.
You know. Brothers.
by Andrew Beard | May 28, 2024 | Words from Pastor Andrew
The other day I had a situation where a bird ended up in The Chapel. We had left the door open for an extended period of time and it seized the opportunity to just waltz right in.
Now, I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried to catch a bird in a 4 story open air chapel…but it is nearly impossible. I am sure we could have hired a professional bird catcher…but I am not one to quit easily.
Unfortunately, the bird kept flying towards light. So he kept trying to escape through the vast amount of windows. I was starting to wonder if this place was actually designed to keep birds trapped in.
I tried for awhile, then gave up and went back to work.
Next thing I knew, the bird walked into my office. Like, I was on a zoom call and he just came walking right in. I had an in-person meeting right after my call, so I had limited time to catch this bird.
I very casually got up, closed the door and trapped the bird in my small office.
