Launching North Campus
Starting a new church and strengthening both in the process. Soft Launch | Nov 1, 2026
For The Love of God, Why Would You Say That?
Published June 16, 2026
Hey Harbor Cov!
I confess… my mind is just a collection of movie scenes. One scene that lives rent-free in my head is from Billy Madison — a movie about a 27-year-old immature heir to a hotel empire who must repeat all 12 grades of school in 24 weeks to prove he is responsible enough to inherit his father's Fortune 500 company. Here’s the clip:
Preach it Billy!
If I could go back and give younger Matt anything, here is what I would say:
“Dear sweet little child… You might want to grow up one day and have more independence and opportunities, and those sound great… But for the love of God, why would you trade what you have now?!”
Everything gets harder, more expensive, and more confusing:
- Getting up off the floor will become a multi-staged event involving grunts, pops, and the mandatory “hoo-boy” once vertical.
- If you sleep exactly 4 degrees out of your spine’s preferred alignment, you will be on an ibuprofen regimen for the next three days.
- You will agonize over having to put on “hard pants” just to go outside after the sun goes down.
- Merely making eye contact with a cup of coffee after 5:00 PM means you will lie awake till 3:00 AM
- You will pay $150 a month for nine different services that have “Plus,” “Max,” or “Premium” in their title
- You will find yourself on hold for three weeks with a robot trying to figure out if you owe the hospital $12 or if you need to sell your house.
- You will need your 12-year-old daughter to translate new slang for you, but you are never allowed to use it, and even if you do, you will probably use it wrong.
Now, strangely, in addition to movie quotes, the reality of entropy (the idea that everything decays, breaks down, or moves toward disorder over time) has also been on my mind ever since my friend Lynette Sanchez mentioned it in her sermon on Sunday at Central Campus.
As we looked at 1 Corinthians 1:18–2:16, she challenged us to consider the wisdom of the world and measure it against the wisdom of the Spirit. The wisdom of the world identifies success as more, more, more, upward, onward, bigger, better, stronger, faster. And yet, when we let this wisdom rule our pursuits, we are blinded to the actual reality… that everything is doing the opposite, but we are in the loving care of God’s Spirit.
I don’t know about you, but I find myself in this tension of a desire for more and a calling to surrender to God. I am asking myself what I’m holding onto and what I should just be letting go of? What are my markers of success, and how are they changing in light of God’s care?
My prayer for us this week is that we find some wisdom of the Spirit when something is difficult, or changing, or slowing down.
Meanwhile, you can find my other friends and me over 40 years old on Sunday afternoons, out of breath, playing rec-league softball. Sigh.