Where Will You Go This Summer?

Christ Church Charlotte

Where Will You Go This Summer?

July 3, 2024

Where will you go this summer? The Fourth of July has me thinking about trips and travel and vacation - time away built into our national calendar. Whether we are going to grandma’s house for homemade ice cream or traveling across the world - summer has us thinking about different ways to spend our days and what we might find when we get to our destination.

I happen to love a long trip! Sure, getting away for a long TIME is great, but a long DISTANCE means seeing new things, tasting new foods, and getting a different perspective on life. Whether it’s a vacation or a pilgrimage, there’s plenty of planning that goes into the destination: where we’ll go, what we’ll experience, and even marking restaurants that I hope to enjoy on Google Maps. It all changes in the final week or so before a trip, when I find myself focused on the journey itself, on the travel required to get to my destination. What do I need to stay comfortable? Is my airplane pillow still up to the task? What clothes will I wear on the plane that feel like pajamas but don’t look like I just rolled out of bed!?

We recently had our first gathering for the pilgrims who will go to Italy this fall, journeying in the way of peace that St. Francis calls us to through his life and witness. Over dinner, I talked to the group a little bit about the transformative power of the three types of journeys we can take: travel, vacation, and pilgrimage.

We can travel for work. My dad did it 4-6 days a week for my whole childhood. Travel is the logistics of getting from one place to another. Travel is the boring part, the hard part, the monotonous part: security lines and the long white-line of the highway, interrupted only by fast-food and “are we there yet?”. We learn about ourselves in the crucible of travel, and we learn A LOT about those we travel with!

Vacation is the bucket-list, the seeking after a new experience, hoping to learn something about the world. We all need a vacation sometimes. And we find ourselves transformed - by time away, by new sights and foods, by the restoration of our souls when we participate in God’s Sabbath. Any parent of young children will tell you that when you go to the beach with a three year old, you really aren’t on vacation, you’re just traveling - taking your routine on the road for a change of scenery. And still it’s worthwhile, even when it’s hard. There are transformative moments even for the young families carting 80 pounds of stuff in a beach wagon across the sand.

Pilgrimage is different still. We can take a pilgrimage in All Saints’ Hall when we walk the labyrinth. Pilgrimage is when we take a journey, not to learn about another place, but to learn about ourselves.

Where will you go this summer? My hope is that you will be on the lookout for the unexpected pilgrimage you are being called to take. It might be walking a circuit, gate to gate, during a frustrating airport delay; it could be the moment you put down your book or your phone to simply watch the waves crash as they have done and will do with no help from us; or perhaps in your own back yard, dragging the hose around and pondering the mystery of plants that were dormant for months, now greedy for the same water that refreshes us.

Where will you go this summer? Far or near, wherever you go, God is with you.

Encouragement

July 24, 2024

The fifteen contestants showed up at ABC studios at 6:30 a.m. We were escorted to the Green Room where we each waited for our turn to try to win $1,000,000. In the Green Room, we were left with our thoughts and each other. Small talk ensued, and strangers became friends. One by one, the contestants left the Green Room and headed to the studio. We'd all shout, "Good luck!", (and we meant it). My turn came around 2:30 p.m. The remaining contestants said, "You've got this!", "Go out there and win!", "Good luck!" As I was being escorted to the studio, the ABC page said, "Just know the audience is cheering you on." Before the recording started, Meredith Viera said, "Okay, Scottie, all of these people want you to win! So, relax and have fun." These wonderful nuggets of encouragement were more valuable to me than the money I won on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” Life is certainly not a game show. However, we are presented with stressors every day that may cause a wobble in our confidence or make us question our decisions. The challenges we face can sometimes be overwhelming. In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Paul’s call to action (not a simple suggestion) is “to encourage one another and build each other up.” Encouragement is more than just offering kind words. It’s about fostering hope, inspiring faith, and building up others on their journey. It’s a deliberate act of kindness and support that strengthens the heart and soul. Encouragement can come in many forms: words, deeds, or a simple presence. It plays a crucial role in the lives of those around us. In Hebrews 10:24-25, we read, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the day approaching.” Community is vital to our faith journey. In a world where we can easily become isolated, regular communion with others provides support and a sense of belonging. Encouragement has a ripple effect. When we encourage someone, it often inspires them to pass that encouragement on to others. This chain reaction creates a community of support and love, where everyone is built up and strengthened. Spreading positivity and support are small acts of encouragement that can lead to significant transformations. How often have you heard someone say, “I will keep you in my prayers”? That’s a form of encouragement. When someone says, “I’m so happy to see you,” or “How kind of you,” or any number of other affirming words. Encouragement. Christ Church is wonderful at reaching out to each other and to the larger community through acts of service. Encouragement. Offering to listen to someone without judgement. Yes, encouragement. As you progress through the day, imagine all the people who are pulling for you. Let someone know you're pulling for them too. You’ve got this!

Trust

July 17, 2024 • Emily Skinner

Each week, a member of the Christ Church staff begins our weekly staff meeting with a devotion. This week's contribution by Administrative Assistant for Worship & Liturgy Emily Skinner had us all smiling: Change is a funny thing. You can deliberately ask for it, make it happen yourself, even prepare for it, but it can also come completely out of your control, without warning, in unimaginable ways. As many of you know, the main thing that has recently changed in my life is becoming a mom. I am the ultimate overthinker, and just about a year ago, I was searching for signs from God to help in my indecision to pick a name for my baby girl. I began to doubt myself anytime I got close to choosing one. I was overwhelmed by the pressure of the decision and became comfortable in my indecision and continued to stretch it out as long as I could. It became a game-time decision when we were filling out the birth certificate form two hours after she was born. I looked at her and felt a pull towards the name Shiloh. I had always loved the beauty and uniqueness of the name, but I still hoped it was the “correct” choice, waiting for a sign from the universe, God, anyone, that I was making the right decision. Thankfully, it didn’t take much time for me to fully embrace the name as I got to know my baby Shiloh. And I convinced myself I never needed a tangible or obvious sign from God to choose my daughter’s name. If Cole and I were happy with it and our baby was healthy, nothing else really mattered. But I believe God has a funny way of telling us things. The day we came home from the hospital, my mom was changing Shiloh’s diaper and said, “It says her name!” I was so confused – was there something on her skin? Something funky in her diaper? What was she talking about? Mom looked up and pointed at the diaper and said it again. Sure enough, printed on the diaper was the name Shiloh. I was stunned! You may already know this, but it was major news to me that day – Pampers have little characters on them, an elephant and a duckling named Shiloh and Freddie, and their pictures and names are printed on most of their diapers. I know this has nothing directly to do with my Shiloh. Pampers did not name their character after her, but I have never met another Shiloh, and of all the names in the world these two animal characters could have, this discovery felt special to me. To this day, when I pull out a diaper with Shiloh’s name, I pause and smile. This little moment takes me back to the first day we came home from the hospital. I look back at who I was then and who I am now, how much has changed, and how truly thankful I am for this life and this growing chunk of a baby. I don’t feel wrong in saying that this coincidence was a sign from God. I am not saying that He put the name Shiloh in the brain of the Pampers animal creator and me for this reason, but I do think that God has helped me create this sentimental reminder between the name printed on the diaper and the small human I am raising. I will always be reminded of where we started and where we are headed. It aids in my confidence that I chose the perfect name for my baby and reminds me of the privilege I feel in being her mom, which is so much of what I longed for leading up to her birth. God really does work in mysterious ways! One of the reasons I fell in love with the name Shiloh was for the meaning attached to it. In Hebrew it translates as “gift from God” or “peaceful one.” About a month after Shiloh was born, my husband, Cole, showed me his daily devotional reading, which that day was focused on scripture about Shiloh. Seeing this unexpected reminder again felt more like a sign than a coincidence, like one of those “God winks” reminding me that He is watching, He knows what He’s doing, has my best interest at heart, and trusts me to believe in Him and His plans. If you’ve had a child, you know that it takes more than a few days to recover and figure out your new normal. A month in, Cole and I still felt like we were in the trenches with a combination of no sleep and cluelessness. But no matter how lost, confused, or emotional I felt, I knew God was watching over us and our Shiloh and would help us see this phase through. I still feel like I am learning something new about being a mom every day, but I can look back at those early weeks and how fast they flew by. I blinked and my tiny 6-pound baby is now a rolling, babbling, giggly 20 pounder. Indecision, unknowing change, wonder, and growth all seem to sum up this last year for me. I am proud of the way I can reflect now and feel the growth and newfound confidence I have in myself and my new normal. I begged for clarity on a name and confidence in being a mom in a time that felt so scary and unknowing. I can see so clearly now how God has led and shaped me into the person and mom that I am today.

Abide

July 11, 2024 • Joshua Case

Like many of you, I’ve had a stick in my hand for a long time. Indeed, some of my earliest memories of both golf and God come from walking around in God‘s original cathedral — nature — or if you really pressed my grandfather, the golf course. Some of my earliest memories of connecting to God come from prayers that my grandmother and I would pray on her tee box, where my grandfather insisted that I tee off in order to help with pace of play or, as he would say, “to try to keep things down the middle.” Indeed, until I was probably 11, my grandfather always insisted that if I couldn’t hit a fairway with a five iron, I need not take any other club out of the bag. My friends, I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the more challenging it is to keep things down the middle. The game of life (and golf) seems to get strangely more complicated with each passing year. We have bigger goals or lower scores, expectations, distractions, or hardships that come our way. Indeed, over time, even our bodies, these flesh and bone temples of God’s spirit, begin to make it a little more challenging for us to trust and see that the abundant life Jesus so often preached is still within our reach. I’m here to tell you that Jesus didn’t want life with God to be this complicated. JESUS had one simple suggestion for his disciples, one “swing thought,” and it was an invitation to abide. In John’s gospel, having washed the disciples’ feet and served them a last supper, Jesus prayed for his friends and reminded them that, like a vine attached to its source, the way of following him in the world was the way of abiding. Jesus said, “Abide in me… And I will abide in you…and through God, you will bear much fruit.” Friends, Jesus knew the challenges of abiding his disciples would face, and they were not that different from ours. His prayer and his hope was that they might remember: When things are going well, or we are on a roll, the invitation is to abide. When questions overwhelm and grief, loss, and tragedy come close, the invitation is to abide. When the bounces of life (golf) don’t go our way or we lose confidence in our ability to can get up and face it all over again, the invitation is to abide. Growing up in Alabama, my mom hosted a charity golf event for the Alabama Institute for the Deaf & Blind. One of my favorite people to watch was a pro by the name of Charlie Boswell. While Charlie had 28 titles to his name, there was one thing that distinguished him from most of his peers. Charlie, having been injured serving in the armed forces, was legally blind. Yet Charlie played golf quite successfully for many years with the help of a sighted caddy. I can remember following Charlie‘s group and I can see his caddy standing next to him, getting his body oriented in the right direction, telling him the distance, and the wind and the break and the hazards that were in front of them. Charlie’s caddy would give him all the data he needed and Charlie would choose a club, slowly make his turn and send the ball through the air. As the ball landed – often pretty near where they’d planned – they would grab each other arm-in-arm and walk down the fairway to play the ball wherever it lay. Y’all, if we are honest, we are all walking a little bit blind through this life with one another and with God. The good news of the gospel is that, like Charlie’s caddy who was there every step of the way, Jesus promised we would never be on this journey alone — that arm-in-arm we would be able to play the course of life in front of us with God at our side. Ok, I can hear you asking, well tell us then, how do we abide? Well, it’s as simple as G.O.L.F: G: Get grounded – Abiding means creating places in your life to hear the spirit speaking to you. Read scripture, pray, be still, as the psalmist suggested, and remember that God is God and you are not. O: Open your heart/eyes – We may be a little blind, but the signs of grace and God’s presence are all around us. Remember that we see now, as Paul said, through a glass dimly, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. L: Listen – God never said hardship would not come, only that God would be with us. We have to create moments in our lives where we can drown out the noise and hear what the Spirit is saying. F: Find fellowship – Find your cathedral, church, or small group. Don’t walk this journey of life alone. Find a group of people who can encourage you in your faith and know that prayer matters. Check in on those you love and remember, it’s OK to not be OK, but it is not OK to believe you have to do life alone. Yes friends, the wisdom of abiding is really as simple as GOLF. God’s will for us is that we might experience the abundance of what can be by walking with Jesus to bear the fruit of God‘s kingdom on this earth. Abide in Christ my friends, and Christ will abide in you, and you will never walk alone. AMEN.