How It Went

I'm working on next week's message in our series "Just Lust" and need a break. Figured I'd share how things went yesterday. Like I said earlier, I didn't want to even talk about it and still don't, but I've got to say that God's hand was definitely on me. I felt calm and heard more than a few comments and have gotten a few emails already saying that it was a good service. That's great, but I'll be more happy if I see lives changed and guys stop clicking on internet crap that can shipwreck their faith, marriages, self-esteem, careers and the people around them.

There were two distinctly memorable moments yesterday. the first is when I brought out a pair of handcuffs to illustrate how we get bound up and restrained from living the life God has for us. The memorable part happened when I took them out and said, "Now I know what you're thinking...pastor's talking about lust and pulls out a pair of handcuffs...this is just too wierd" I meant to break some of the tension, what I hadn't thought through, was my follow up question which asked, "now what are these for?" I unwittingly set the audience up to be thinking about some off color stuff when I asked that question. It made for a somewhat uncomfortable funny. I mean, what would you think handcuffs were for in the context of a discussion on sex and lust?

The other moment came at the end. We'd talked about pressing the delete button in our mind and how it's not as hard as we think. It's not only easy (once we decide to do it) but it's worth it. So I got an Easy Button from Staples that says "Well that was easy" every time you pressed it. At the end of the service, I challenged people to get up and press the button as a way to show they're serious about deleting lust in their lives. So while some music played, people came up and one-by-one they pressed the button and I heard over and over again, "Well that was easy." A lot of people responded...good, sad, scary.

One more thing. The rest of the day was a constant blur. We packed up the trailer and everything after church, took the whole family out to eat with another couple from church. I think their two teenage girls probably learned a lot about our family by sitting with my kids. From there, Lora took Tyler to meet with his football team, get his game jersey and do a walk through, while I took the van and the rest of the kids home to change, get Tyler's football clothes and some clothes for Lora. Here's how that went. Hannah (2 mos) cried, no, screamed, most of the drive and almost the whole time we were at home. Chandler (5) threatened to puke when I asked him to make some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that we could take to the game. Tanner (8) yelled at Hannah because she kept screaming and then Sarah (2) started crying. Why you ask? Because she tried to go to the bathroom, couldn't get her underwear down, and ended up peeing all over herself, her shoes and the bathroom floor. And I though we'd be in and out in 6 minutes or less. Cleaned it up, cleaned me up, changed clothes, found clothes and loaded everyone (including the screaming baby) in the car to rendezvous with Lora and Tyler. Lora fed Hannah, we drove to the game and watched Tyler's team get creamed (and poor Tyler only got to play like 2 plays) Finally, we got home a little after 8. Not a bad 13 hour day for the pastor.