Gradually Then Suddenly
Every August, the back-to-school season reminds me that life often unfolds gradually, then suddenly. This year feels especially significant for our family. Angie and I are sending our second child off to college while our youngest prepares to begin her senior year of high school. It's hard to believe how quickly these milestones have arrived.
Yet when we stop and think about it, they didn't happen overnight. They were built through thousands of ordinary days—from Pre-K through high school, back to school shopping, helping with homework, cheering from the sidelines, driving to practices, having family dinners, praying together, and making countless memories along the way. What feels like a sudden transition is in reality the result of years of investment.
That's true in so many areas of life. The biggest moments are rarely built in a day—they are the result of what Eugene Peterson described as, “long obedience in the same direction.”
In his book Gradually Then Suddenly, Mark Batterson reminds us that God's greatest works are often years in the making before they become visible in a single moment. I believe that's exactly what we're experiencing as a family as we launch our kids into their next season of life and what we’re experiencing at Christian Chapel as we move through this building project.
This month we’ll move into our expanded sanctuary, and Chapel Youth will move into their new first floor wing. These moves will happen suddenly. One day those spaces will be a construction zone and the next day they’ll be places of worship and connection. But we know they’re the result of years of gradual work that includes prayer, planning, generous giving, and months of construction. Along the way, you've demonstrated incredible patience, generosity, flexibility, and encouragement.
While we're excited about completing Phase One of our building project, what we're really celebrating is God's faithfulness through every season that brought us here – all those Gradually Then Suddenly moments of grace and provision.
As students begin another school year and Christian Chapel prepares for this exciting new chapter, let's thank God for the gradual work He has been doing all along. And let's continue our own long obedience in the same direction, confident that the God who has been faithful in the past will continue to do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine in the days ahead.
