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“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me…”
MALACHI 3:1 (NIV)

Our neighborhood is manic about Christmas lights. In the same moments people were deciding whether or not marshmallows-on-sweet-potatoes belong in a sandwich made from leftover turkey, my neighborhood started putting up Christmas lights. In our family, we felt like we may have needed a bit more time to let the tryptophan weaken its grip on us before we started untangling the strands of Christmas glory. We could feel the disdain from our neighbors about our lack of impetus. They didn’t say it. But we knew it. They purposely sent their dogs to our lawn during this past week (I’m sure of it) — a kind of Whoville meets A Few Good Men “code red” to get us moving. Evidently, we needed to get with the program. Lights needed to be up on our house. “Immediately” would not be soon enough. We have to be ready.

Being ready is what the season of Advent is about. Advent is a word meaning “arrival.” It’s a time in which we dually place ourselves both in the 1st century amid the shepherds, the kings, the peasant farmers, the mothers, and the fishermen who felt the very real tyranny of Rome and our present world, twenty centuries later in which we have, once again, to wonder about the reality of senseless and unthinkable violence. Whether now, or then, we’re ready for new world -a world with at least a measure of more peacefulness.

In truth, we have a reason both for sadness about the state of things and a reason to celebrate about what will someday be. We can celebrate because the work that has begun in Jesus, which will one day come to completion, is being carried out through us and into the world now. We’ll need to prepare our hearts for all God has called us to be a part of, to living in eager anticipation of His future. That future, God’s future, is one of hope, peace, love, and joy.

The Sunday night, December 6th, beginning at 5p, we’ll get ready for Christmas at our annual tree lighting. We’ll remember what celebrating looks like. We’ll leave behind the memories of dirty dishes of Thanksgiving. Black Friday, Small business Saturday, Send-your-dog-to-the-Maguire’s-lawn-Sunday, and Cyber-Monday are all in the rearview mirror. We’ll gather as people in need of celebration -even if we don’t feel like it. So, come, bring a friend. Refresh your memory about what Christmas joy looks like. We’ll laugh. We’ll throw snow at each other (we’ve ordered 10 tons of it). Our kids will eat too many cookies and drink too much cocoa. We’ll huddle around cups of chili made by our own Mariners family (if you’d like to contribute, contact Kasaundra Domen at kdomen@marinerschurch.org). We’ll wear hideous Christmas sweaters -the way Jesus would’ve wanted it. We’ll sing, perhaps not perfectly, but loudly nonetheless. We’ll prepare our hearts for the arrival of Jesus. Your heart will be aimed at Christmas, and even if you don’t feel it now, you’ll be ready too.

See you soon,
Jeff

Bring your friends and family for a sled run, homemade chili bar, hot chocolate, photo booth, and more. To volunteer or if you want to bring chili, contact Kasaundra, kdomen@marinerschurch.org

Sun, Dec 6, Mission Viejo Campus
5p, Patio Festivities
6p, Program in the Worship Center

Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you…
DEUTERONOMY 4:23

I am frequently distracted. I have to use a series of timers, calendar alerts, and alarms to keep me aimed at any task at hand. I’m guilty of starting many things with good intentions and never finding my way to seeing any of them all the way through. I forget things. Sometimes, I forget the unforgettables. I do, however, find some solace in the company of my fellow forgetors.

At the risk of oversimplifying the Bible a bit, one way to understand the nature of the relationship between God and his people is as follows:

God remembers his people. God’s people forget him.

God is constantly in loving pursuit of people who fail to remember his work of the past. When people forget him, they wander away. They make choices they’ll later regret. They seek out weaker gods that promise everything and deliver nothing. So, God says, “be careful not to forget” — as if it would be easy to do so.

To look at the Hebrew Bible, we see a God who apparently loves to give his people a ton of seemingly bizarre festivals and rituals. All of these are simply ways of retelling the story of God’s ongoing rescue and restoring power and love. These practices help the people to remember their God. People who can remember, can be thankful.

To be thankful is a rather obvious instruction for this weekend. So instead of re-hashing the list of things for which you are thankful, consider creating a simple, annual ritual of remembering this holiday weekend. Before the chip-n-dip, before the football games, after the clean-up, before bed, whenever. Pause. Remember. Tell the story of God’s love and rescue — even when the light of that memory may have faded to a mere glimmer. Stoke the fire of that small spark and remember. Then, you may find a deeper thankfulness than you knew was there.

See you soon,

Jeff

Invite family, friends and neighbors and join us for an evening of giving thanks, reflecting on the year and worshiping God together. Contact Kasaundra, kdomen@marinerschurch.org with questions.

THANKSGIVING EVE SERVICE
Wed, Nov 25, 6:30p, Worship Center
childcare available for infant-3 yrs

All kindergarten-5th grade kids are invited to be part of the Port Mariners Kids Christmas Choir and sing in church on Sunday, December 13, at both the 9a & 11a services. Kids must register and attend the two mandatory rehearsals on Wednesday December 2 & 9 from 6-7p in order to participate. Register online here. Questions? Email Christina at cswanson@marinerschurch.org

Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.​​  Psalm 95:2 (NIV)

Tears. Joy or sadness, suffering and pain, exuberance and hilarity; a salty liquid response to the array of emotions we often experience sometimes even in a matter of moments.

I used to say I wasn’t a “crier.” I would still like to think that, however, my closest friends have recently begun to tease whenever I share stories about Mariners MV… “Oh, yeah. Don’t mind her. She cries when she talks about our church.”

Three years ago I moved to Orange County for a career position I had accepted. My best friend from college lived here, and her roommate invited us to check out Mariners MV when she heard I was looking for a church community to call home.

The first weekend I attended a service I was overwhelmed in the best way. I felt immediately welcomed and invited in, even before I stepped inside. A woman roughly my age was walking from the parking lot at about the same time. She hurried a bit to grab my attention—she just wanted to compliment me on the boots I was wearing, and we started to chat on the way in. From our small talk she discovered it was my first time at Mariners MV so she made sure to show me the coffee area and where to sit so I had the best view of the stage (remember, there was still a wall in the middle of the room).

I began to watch the seats fill in around me as people walked in. There were individuals of all ages and life stages, hugging and laughing and worshiping together.

As I watched this community in front of me, I started to cry.

It was hard to get the words out as I sang through the tears, “Thank you Lord,” I whispered.

Over the last three years since that day, I have been blessed to spend time as a volunteer on the youth ministry teams and recently transitioned to a staff position on the Mariners MV team. My story inside these walls has had the full range of tear evoking emotions, and I know so many of us could say the same for reasons similar or perhaps opposite.

During this time of year, we pause as a church family to share our stories – stories of gratitude and generosity, loneliness and trial, joy and restoration, thankfulness and hope. Next week we will gather on Thanksgiving Eve to reflect and worship together. I encourage you to invite a friend to experience the same thing we experience when we come—a church family. Come rest in thankfulness with us this week.

See you on the patio,

Kasaundra

“…the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”
ROMANS 8:6

In the last year or so, my family reached a milestone: every member of the Maguire household can tie their own shoes. My youngest, not wanting to expend any unnecessary energy (as if there’s a shortage in his life) or waste any time, will often ask for help in this effort. However, he can do it. And, the more he does do it, the better he’ll get at it.

What is peculiar about this shoe-tying phenomenon, however, is that every member of my family does it differently. The result is roughly the same. But, the way each one of us gets to that end is different. That being said, if shoe-tying is evaluated on the ability of the laces to remain tied over time, each of us get different grades. The boys seem to suffer with the least success in knot-longevity.

In recognizing this reality, and feeling insecure about something that should have been mastered a long time ago, I attempted to learn a new way to tie my shoes. At 6 years old, learning a new way to tie shoes is simply just learning. At 39, however, this is a monumental effort to overcome countlessly repeated “rabbit around the tree and through the hole” moments over the past decades. This repetition has been cemented to become the way I do it. After about 5 attempts at a new method, I gave up. My way is my way. I’d rather re-tie my shoes than learn a new way. Too hard. I’m not interested.

This, I think, is how many of us have come to understand our own lives and the challenge that comes in any transformation journey. We can recognize that there may be a better way, a new way, a way that may make more sense, but there is a comfort in our way. No matter the cost, we have a natural gravity toward our present way of being. That gravity is hewn into a pathway within our minds, grooved into our subconscious until it becomes part of us. To even consider an alternative means, at least marginally, a re-wiring of who we are. So, we equally long for and fear transformation… even if we know we need it.

This Sunday as we continue in our TRANSFORmeD series, we’ll talk about transformation and where the early evidence of God’s supernatural work to change us is found — in our minds. Bring anyone who’s ever been stuck in “a way” and can’t seem to find a way out.

See you soon,

Jeff

P.S. For those of you longing for a solution to your poorly tied shoes, here’s a three-minute TED talk from a few years back.