Chapel Blog

We don’t like waiting! But waiting is a central part of our faith. There is an “already, not yet” factor we have to consider in every experience in life. In the case of the seniors who are graduating, you are already old enough to vote, go to war, choose a spouse without your parents’ permission, pay taxes, drive a car, a motorcycle or a boat, and sign a lease on your own apartment. On the other hand, you can’t legally buy tobacco, alcohol, rent a car, or buy a gun, not yet anyway.

This doesn’t feel fair, right? “Why should I have to wait?” You say, “I’m old enough to die in a war, but not old enough to rent a car or buy a drink? It’s not fair!”

We don’t like waiting and some of you don’t. But have you considered what you might be missing out on by taking now, what might be better later? Waiting is part of life. After all, there’s nine months built into the process of becoming a parent. There’s time required before cashing in on investments, there’s wisdom in counting to 10 before responding if you value your relationships. Similarly, you can get married at eighteen, but to become a great spouse takes a lifetime. You can go to war at eighteen, but to become a seasoned soldier takes time, discipline and training. You can get lots of money quickly, but wisdom to know how to manage it well takes time.

When do you learn how to wait for things that require it if you never practice waiting? Most of our spiritual journey makes us wait. The Bible uses the image of a mustard seed to describe the kingdom of God because to fully discover the kingdom takes time.

I’m convinced that the things we really want in life can only be gained in time. We want joy, a deep sense of peace and belonging that often comes in spite of suffering and loss, but we settle for happiness, a condition of circumstances, often artificially altered. We want true intimacy and love, the byproduct of humility, mutual trust, confession of sin, honesty, transparency and commitment, but we settle for popularity, fame, and social acceptance.

We don’t like to wait, but we also don’t like the results of shallow pursuits and surface level lives.

In reference to the coming Messiah, Zechariah prophesied that we should not despise small beginnings. In other words, if we never learn to wait joyfully on what seems insignificant, we may miss that which is most significant.

As you step into the next season of your life, be content to start at the bottom and work your way up. There are untold treasures to be found in the simple, mundane tasks that make up regular service and necessary work. Prospering comes in the end to those who are willing to wait for it. So, don’t worry if you don’t have everything you ever wanted immediately just wait for it, it’s worth it!

It is so tempting to compare our lives to others’, especially now that people’s lives are so readily on display through the many-headed monster of media in all its ubiquitous forms. Unless you are disciplined, really disciplined, you can hardly escape the nagging, on-going, never-ending temptation to compare everything you do and say to other’s lives.

Last summer, I was at Mapleridge Ranch for a week. It’s a small Christian sleep-away camp in Owego, NY run by my cousin, Duane, and his wife Tiana. One of the things they are committed to is giving kids an opportunity to be unplugged. On Sunday, when everyone arrives there is a general reticence to give up the phone, but by the next Saturday, there’s a reticence to take it back. All through the week, campers engaged with increasing freedom in being themselves, joining in with joy and enthusiasm in all the silly games and activities. And, why not? No one had their phone out, and there was no threat of them being exposed. It was beautiful!

Regularly the campers report that being free of the constant pressure and nagging vibrations of their devices, is their favorite part of the camp experience.

I have a friend who has thousands of cactuses! No, seriously, thousands! You might have an aloe vera plant mixed in among your landscaping, or a prickly pear you have to prune back twice a year, he has thousands of different varieties of cactuses and succulents. When I went to his house, I was blown away by the whole operation.

While he was giving me the tour, he said, “cactuses don’t do well with too much water so they really need soil that drains well.” My friend’s connection between the health of the plant and that of the soil is an excellent analogy for what it looks like to prepare the soil of our hearts.

Easter is not just about a break from school, a set of random traditions, or chocolate bunnies and dressing up for grandma.

Easter is the single most important event in human history, and the most profound revelation of God’s love and intentions for humanity ever revealed, because it is the central event when the “super” natural took on a fully natural form to rescue us from our sin. Easter celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Passover lamb of God.

One way you might take some time to appreciate the depth of God’s wisdom this Easter is by studying this angle on the Easter story: Jesus was crucified on the Day of Preparation for the Passover as indicated in all four gospels (Matthew 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14).

When you’re hanging out with your school friends there’s usually a little competition involved. You’re always wondering if you’re wearing the right clothes, using the right words in the right way. You’re worried if you’re going to be invited to the next thing or start in the next game. Why is this? What is the insecurity that always seems to be lurking behind the scenes of our relationships, even our closest and/or most intimate ones? There is a nagging fear baked in all of our human interactions that we will not measure up, or for some of us, that others will fall short and let us down. This is evidence of the limitation of our fallen nature – it’s not how it was supposed to be.

Alcohol abuse is an issue. Alcohol impairs judgement and produces results a sober person would never have allowed. This is a case where the natural thing (alcohol) is being used in a way it was never intended to produce results it does not have the power to deliver.

If you tried to hang from a small branch of a tree, for example, you would hardly be surprised when it snapped, and you ended up with an injury. But isn’t this exactly what we’re doing when we expect spiritual results (joy, fulfillment, peace, satisfaction, love etc...) from natural things?

We are physical beings living in a physical world with natural desires, but that’s not all we are. We are also spiritual beings with souls and eternal needs that can only be satisfied in supernatural ways. Jesus says in John 15:1, “I am the true vine...”. Vines, the ones he’s referring to produce grapes. Grapes, when pressed, fermented and stored for an appropriate amount of time in the right conditions produce wine. Wine, for those living in the United States who are over the age of 21, is part of the meal. It’s also part of traditions, and ceremonies. It represents investment, love, and time. It indicates that this meal is not just for sustenance, it’s for enjoyment.

I will never forget the moment while we were remodeling our house in Charlotte, NC, and my wife walked in to where I had pulled up floorboards in the kitchen so that she could see the dirt under the house. With a look of horror and discouragement on her face she said, “I didn’t realize that vaulting the ceilings meant gutting the house.”

Julia Tuttle’s orange blossoms, sent to Henry Flagler during a particularly harsh freeze in the winter of 1895, played a significant role in the oil-baron-turned-railroad-tycoon’s decision to bring his trains south. In reality, Flagler had always had his sights set on Key West, believing it would be a great city and shipping port. With the failing health of his wife, and the mounting frustrations and costs of building railroad tracks through the swampy everglades, however, he may have simply stayed in Palm Coast. But for Tuttle’s creative persistence, Flagler came south! Three years later, Miami was incorporated.Today, it is everything Julia thought it would become and more, as one of the premier cities of the U.S. and a gateway to Latin America. And Flagler too, spurred on by an irrational drive, made it to Key West cutting the path that would become what is now U.S. 1 on the first “railroad across the sea.”