The Sound of Inevitability

By Paul Gilbert

That sound I hear in the not-so-distant distance is the same one that I’m sure you hear: it’s the sound of inevitability. Just like clockwork, the middle of August is here again and with it, the NASCAR-like race we know as the 2018-19 school year. Are you buckled up?
 
I use the auto-racing metaphor to describe the onset of the fall season because I think it’s one that we all intuitively understand. We’ve all been hanging just back of the starting line in our summer pace car, but now that the starter has waved the green flag, it’s gone from 0 to 180 MPH over the course of just a few days. It’s hard to know when we will all see the checkered flag together at the finish line, but it will probably be sometime around Christmas!
 
Before we all press the petal-to-the-metal, though, I want us to ponder this simple question: is this the way it’s supposed to be? I’m not speaking so much about the things that God is calling us to do – work, school, sports, ministry, and travel. I’m thinking more about the WAY that we go about doing them, the sort of spiritually numbed-out and relationally disconnected pace that the new season seems to throw us into, putting us into crazy mode - reactive vs. thoughtful, frenetic vs. prayerful, secular vs. sacred, disenchanted vs. enchanted.
 
This last contrast – enchantment vs. disenchantment – comes from the title of Mike Cosper’s book  that we are going to be studying together at Reboot 2.0. For the uninitiated, Reboot is our annual fall kick-off that we do on the first three Wednesday nights of the school year. August 15, 22, and 29 are the dates this go around, and we are already readying the food selections for dinner, the snow cone truck, the children’s and student activities, and our worship and gathering times in anticipation of coming together as a church family. My prayer is that God will use our times together to show us a fresh vision for what it means to seek him and to walk before his face in the midst of a crazy-busy life.
 
What rhythms does he call us to? What are ways that we can mark our days, weeks, and months to keep us better connected to God and to one another? That’s what we will consider together at Reboot 2.0.

“Reboot 2.0 happens on August 15, 22, & 29 at Four Oaks Killearn (4500 W Shannon Lakes Dr). Join us at 5:30pm for free dinner, children’s programming, and adult discussion.”