Summer schedules can become unpredictable. When that happens, it’s easy to let certain practices slip, like having meals together, like regular exercise…
And like going to church.
Consider this. The average educator spends five thousand hours studying child development before they teach a class. The average paediatrician spends ten years and $500,000 to practice medicine with children. The manufacturer of Barbie will spend about six hundred million dollars a year to win the hearts and minds of an eight-year old girl!*
Let me extrapolate two things from these statistics.
First, in terms of the manufacturer of Barbie, there are many forces that are highly organized and well-funded which are competing for your heart and mind, and also the hearts and minds of the people you care about.
Worshipping God together continually re-centres us on who and what matters most, despite what we may hear from the well-oiled marketing machines around us.
Second, certain activities take time and preparation if they are going to be done well. It’s true for those studying child development; it’s true for those wanting to become a paediatrician; and it’s true for people who want to be disciples of Jesus.
Do you want to know what helps with that? Worshiping and serving God in the context of a flesh-and-blood community.
No church is perfect. No worship service will include everything you “like.” But that’s actually a good thing. It’s not about you and me. It’s about God.
Paul says something direct in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a place every week that facilitated these exact things? Oh, wait a second, there is.
Summer is often unpredictable, and it’s easy to let certain practices slip. So let’s re-stabilize, re-focus, and honour the Lord together as his people have done on Sunday mornings for thousands of years.
Notes:
-*Reggie Joiner and Kristen Ivy, It’s Just a Phase, So Don’t Miss It (Cumming: Orange, 2015), 8.
-The Up Devotional is published 5 days a week (Monday-Friday) and returns on September 14, 2026.
-Bible quotes, ESV.
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