¶ Anticipation and Character Building
Thank you for coming along in the ride , plopping yourself down in the Lazy Days Motorhome , driving down the road , looking out at the beautiful views . We've seen South Dakota , we've seen Iowa , we have seen New I was going to say New Connecticut , which is not a state New Hampshire , connecticut all out the window , and we are currently seeing Georgia .
One of the greatest joys in life is to be napping in the motorhome while someone else is driving . You just have this beautiful little rocking and we had this little fan that was there , so it had a little bit of cool breeze coming down on you . Boy , those are some good naps .
Oh , take me back . I want one of those naps .
That's a solid nap .
That's a solid nap , that's a solid nap .
I don't nap anymore . Um , if I nap , I don't sleep that well . So , oh happens , not really a thing that I do , but that's okay . Are you still a napper ?
I uh occasionally I don't like napping because I don't like wasting daylight on days off you are so so , such a good American .
Well , I'm proud to be a hard work , ethic Well yeah , I don't know .
I think , there's some more like psychological damage that causes me to , but sometimes I'm like I I'm going for it . But you know what's a great nap , tell me , is an outside in the shade nap . It's almost as good as the going down the road in a motorhome nap .
That's good . That's a good nap . That's a good nap . Yeah , and the like . Are you in a hammock in this nap ?
I've got like patio furniture , Okay . Or like a cushioned seat cushioned couch kind of thing .
That's nice , but you need a little bit of breeze , right ? You don't want static like heat . Yeah , or okay , depends it , depends , okay , okay , yeah , I , I personally am a constant um like moving air guy . So when I sleep I don't really I can't imagine sleeping in , just like stagnant hair oh yeah to me is like how do people do it ?
I don't know like . Sometimes I'll see like my kids will be sleeping or whatever , and it's like hot and stagnant if we're just I don't know where and somewhere , and then they're like under blankets on top of that . I'm like , oh , are you ?
are you dead ? What's your default sleep ? I met some people who , like their family , they all PJ up , they have sleep masks . I'm like , wow , oh , you guys are committed to sleeping . Oh , no , yeah , my big thing is moving air , and recently I've definitely added a white noise component to my sleep , and it's pretty glorious when that all happens .
What about for you ?
You're painting vibes of like soon you've got the what is that ? That machine ? And like all sorts of gadgetry surrounding your bed and cough drops and tissues and humidifiers . And yeah , I'm just getting very like . Three pillows , the proper pillows that you travel with , and yeah , do you have a sleep number bed as well , with the like tilt up ?
sort of that . That would be a glorious thing . Then you just tilt yourself oh , I'm at a 34 , 23 , yeah no , I'm just uh you're about to sleep around that well , yeah , I've been .
I've kind of become . I do like to sleep on my belly I'm a bit of a rotisserie hot dog these days okay , just like constantly rolling , but but I really struggle with sleeping on my back , which is problematic when you have a cold , because that's like the only way you could .
Anyways , this is neither here nor there yeah , guys , we have some bad news for you and I know this is going to break most of your hearts . While you frame that right out of the gate . I did . I want you to think of this episode as like a character building episode . We left you on it .
We left you on a cliffhanger last week and the cliffhanger was Mrs Will's boarding house , which is an incredible cliffhanger to be left on , mrs Gould's boarding house , which is an incredible cliffhanger to be left on . And you're probably all jumping in this episode thinking , okay , they're talking about sleep .
I can't wait to get to the food part of the episode . Totally understandable , but there's one more day before then , so you're going to have to , just like you know how you watch a show and they leave you on a cliffhanger and you just can't wait for the next week or , in today's world , for the net of 15 seconds To go by .
His little circle Spins in the corner and you're like , yes , oh , but the episode Doesn't answer the questions . The episode does some Character building over here and you're like , wait , wait , wait , wait . I need to know the resolution to that . But the storytellers intentionally Give you a space , so you have to wait another week .
That's what's happening to you right now . Listener , feel in that moment you're not tracking .
I think this is true . No , I'm tracking . I'm just feeling like you're telling them all to like get ready . We're intentionally going to disappoint you today , oh well this is a good day .
It was a great day . Yeah , I said . I should just say those are good episodes . We're prolonging .
Listen , here's what we're doing we're prolonging the future joy by the anticipation , the hope . By stretching out the anticipation . The best part about Christmas is the season leading up to it . We are giving you December today , Okay , as opposed to boom Christmas morning . All the presents are open and now we're done .
Do you think children would agree that the best part of Christmas morning is the anticipation ?
Listen , I'm trying to recover from what you just said I brought us to a dark place . I realized that as I was saying it , I'm like I don't know if a lot of people are going to buy into this , but if I say it quick enough and move on , then they'll be like yeah , yeah , yeah , okay , I get it . What a nice thing these guys are doing for us .
It's like when you're kids , you say something and you're like , okay , hopefully they'll just believe that and go on to Just move on quickly
¶ Youth Sunday Sermon Anecdotes
. They no longer make Sinter's bars . That's why we're not having Sinter's bars today .
Yeah , oh , they weren't selling well , so now you got to just eat 100 grand because we know that's the best 120 years of Sinter's bars , but now , nope , nope , nope .
They stopped Just today .
Just today . People's favor towards caramel , peanuts and nougat is really waned and therefore you know and your kids are like I don't think that's true .
It's all junior mints . Yeah , we're still , we're still driving , we're not stopping , we're not stopping . Disneyland is closed . Oh , what was the ? What was the um ? Oh , the end of snl was the deep thoughts with jack candy .
Oh , those were the best I love sometimes I just drive my kids to a burned out , abandoned building and I say , oh no , disneyland burned down , and they cry , they cry and cry , oh , oh , deep thoughts .
Some of those were dark .
Some of those were dark , but boy they were funny , they were great . Okay , all right , all right , not to disappoint you , but here we are .
This is a full day , an exciting day , a fun day , hip-hop parade day .
It's day 55 .
Sunday , november 21st 2004 .
Are you ready ? I'm ready . Where do we church today ? I'll tell you . I know that's what I'm saying . I was leaving you , don't get ahead of yourself . I was tossing you a softball . I feel like today may be a feisty day . I like softball .
Anyhow , it rained last night and the Jeep got wet . Oh well , Okay .
Yeah , oh well .
We attended church at Skidaway , where we were parked outside there anyways , and the youth ushered nice , okay , you sunday , yeah , youth sunday . Other than them being the youth and us , everybody was 75 years old or older .
Granted this is my estimates as a 21 year old , two year old or whatever , so they were probably all like in their 40s , but I was like , wow , that's so old , so old . Look at that little bit of gray hair . Yeah , they had a guest preacher from Atlanta and his sermon revolved completely around sports .
It was super funny to me , not like he told jokes and people laughed , but like every analogy he used had to do with football or golfing at augusta or something like that .
And y'all we are in georgia . We are in georgia . That's what you're thinking yeah so I was like you know , I have my alabama time and they just told me they said don't plan anything on saturdays in the fall for the church people won't come . It is it's alabama or auburn day .
That's the day sundays we'll give to the church , but the rest of the time it's that saturday's football . Okay , so like those , those probably play . Well , he knows his audience he knows his audience .
Yeah , from from atlanta . So , uh , I also note , note , noticed and noted here that I called him a preacher , which , in the South , is it always preachers or are there pastors ? Yeah , there's pastors , but I think preacher's good , preacher's good .
Preacher's good . Yeah , reverend Preacher's good . I want to just pause and tell this story , because I've never told this story before on this podcast .
We don't have time , just keep it to yourself .
Okay , all right , fine , we'll school before . We don't have time podcast . Just keep it to yourself . Okay , all right , this is well . This is so the very first you said guest preacher the very first sunday I'm at christian um lutheran church in alabama . We had a guest preacher and the major pastor who I was working with he had had back surgery that week .
So my very first sunday he's not there . Okay , oh man , okay , so it's me and the guest preacher night before church organist gets sick . Now we have a different organist . I start my very first Sunday at this new church . I'm going to be there . I say Hi , I'm Pastor Scott . This guy who's going to preach to you , his name is Ken .
The person in the back , that's Bobby .
¶ Unexpected Children's Message
You may be questioning whether you're at the right church . You are . This be questioning whether you're at the right church . You are . This is your right church , although none of the people are familiar to you . Oh my gosh , brand new . And so the very so .
He , we're sitting up front me and the desk creature , and he says I need some volunteers for the children's message . And I say I don't know anybody right , cause this is I say I know my wife of what ? two months at that point , and the two people she's sitting with were currently sleeping at their house . So choose them Right ? So those are the three .
Oh , my , gosh Okay . So it gets up front Do , do , do , do , do and it goes . Tom Judy , emily , come on up Now . You know Emily and most of your listeners know Emily . I'm the upfront person in the relationship . She's not the upfront person in the relationship . So she comes on up and she's like what is going on First Sunday as a pastor's wife .
First .
Sunday in Birmingham . All of these things . Here we are . He goes . Okay , guys , you four are a family . Tom and Judy are an older couple . They're like our parents . You guys are in a car and you're driving along . Oh no , you get in a car accident and all four of you die . Oh Wow , Meanwhile he's cutting . He's cutting something .
Here you go to the dates of St Peter and here he's doing you at the dates , and whether you get into heaven or not , here are your tickets . Okay , Tom , let me see your ticket . Oh , nope , not right , You're going to hell .
He , just he shows up and sends Tom to hell .
Judy let me see your ticket .
Oh my gosh .
Not right . You're going to hell , Judy or Emily , my current wife Right of two months my first day of pastor life , oh , my gosh . You're going to hell too . All three of them are going to hell . I , because of his fancy cutting trick , have a cross that . Oh look , he knows Jesus , he's going to heaven . Okay , great children's message guys .
Go and sit down and they're like this is 10 minutes into Emily being a pastor's wife she's already told to go to hell by the desk preacher and I um , I go home . My favorite part of the story is I go home and we're with tom and judy , met their house and I say look , guys , I I'm really sorry .
I had no idea what was going to happen , but you're the only people who I know . And and judy , judy looks at me and she says I'm not mad about being sent to hell . She's like here's , here's what upsets me . She said we got into this car and then we went in car accident . She says my husband , he works in um like severe brain trauma injury .
We do not leave our parking lot unless we have our seatbelts on . We would not have died in that car accident .
Oh my gosh , that's what she . I love it . That's what she .
We're alive , come on , come on , we're buckled . We're buckled .
We may have some injuries , but we didn't die . Oh my gosh .
It was a great moment . I'm like this is yeah , this is 10 minutes in 10 minutes into Emily being a pastor's wife at the eight 30 service and a new church .
What's going on ?
It was the like what a great way for her just to launch into public ministry .
Yeah , I'm so intrigued .
¶ Southern Tradition and Youth Ministry Memories
I want to hear the rest of the sermon , Cause I'm like where do you go from here ?
That was a children's message . That was the whole thing . That was the whole sermon for the kids Go to kids' church now .
It was just like . Some of you are going to go to hell , some of you are going to go to heaven .
Because I had the cross , I had Jesus . So if you don't know Jesus , you're going to hell .
Oh my gosh , I mean not wrong , Does it get more ?
Southern than that , though ? I mean , does it get more like turn and burn Southern ? I'm going to send people to hell , I guess . Straight to the point , I'll give you two guesses from which Southern state that preacher was from ? Yeah , well , I'm gonna say , guess one is georgia yeah , you're wrong , I know I knew you were gonna do that , but guess .
Two is where I would preach . Like that comes from not very , not very tall state , maybe southern , maybe not southern , not very high , not a lot of elevation florida he's from florida oh yeah , as you said , not a lot of elevation . I was , oh no but I just desperate , sure ?
Sorry , it's just one of my , it's a classic I don't know where else I was gonna get it in yeah , that's funny .
I never heard that , or I did , but I don't pay attention to you a lot , so it might have just been one of those in one ear , not the other , oh scott's telling a story again . Well , I I'm going to go poop .
I'm going to go , yeah , exactly .
Okay , well , let's see here yeah .
Y'all would have laughed .
I haven't used y'all in there . The service on the whole was very traditional . We were the only ones there not wearing jackets and ties . Yeah that is the South .
I would assume that is not how we go to church here in .
Southern California . It's like flip-flops , t-shirts Irreverent . Maybe that's not okay . After the service , scott gave his talk to the youth , in which I have heard numerous times went great Kids loved it , let's eat . We all Hold on a second . Did we ever figure out if you still had that talk somewhere written down ?
oh , I definitely didn't have it written down . Do you remember it ? I , I , yes , I remember enough of it . I could do some of it at some point . We should do it .
Yeah , but the the part that you don't remember is remember we had t-shirts and we would hold up t-shirts and we would tell stories as the opening , so you and I would go back and forth and tell some funny stories and then I would close with a big boom closing . Do you remember that ?
It saddens me that I don't remember that very well . Yeah , I .
Especially having heard it so many times . Yeah well , kevin , but you probably were like , yeah , probably I . The the only story that I remember telling regularly and this was part of the talk was the one where I was in the golf cart with steve and we were um backing down the hill and I looked to him and I said you want to see a fancy maneuver .
Oh yeah .
So , listener , I was golfing with Steve and Steve Burns , our youth pastor , and we're in Palm Springs and we're going backwards on this hill and we're just going to back down to turn . And I looked over to Steve and I're just going to back down to turn . And I looked over to Steve and I said , steve , you want to see a fancy maneuver ?
And he's like , yeah , I do . So I put the thing in reverse . I'm going straight down this hill , golf carts have governors going forwards , but it turns out they don't have governors going backwards , which is interesting .
But it kind of made sense right , because you don't think about that .
So at the engine in reverse transmission , just like game on . And in my mind I'm thinking that turn you see people do on the movies where they spin 180 , and they flip it and drive and they go forward . I'm thinking this is what we're going to do .
Oh my gosh .
Straight down this hill . I cranked the wheel Golf carts are not sports cars , they are not meant for that move and cranked the wheel Golf carts are not sports cars , they are not meant for that move and I turned the wheel .
I will say one could argue that a golf cart is exactly a sports car .
Well , okay , true , right , I like that . I turned and about halfway , you know we're going , I'm like oh , this is just not , we're going way fast . Oh boy , you know we're going . I'm like oh , this is just not . We're going way fast . Oh boy , we're sideways and boom and we just flip . We don't flip , but we tilt on our side and there's no chance .
And I just look up and I just see Steve coming down on me because we're going to fall and we just tuck up and just kind of slide golf court , golf clubs , everywhere , steve on top of me . I looked at him , I'm like you good . And he's like , yeah , you good . I'm like I think so let's get up , get this golf cart up and get everything in . It was .
It was such a bad like decision , but also led to again one of our things those little moments where what ?
about the dolphin trip .
do I remember Nothing else except me looking over to him ? Want to do a fancy maneuver ? Yeah , I do . Yeah I do .
That should be a red flag .
You know what's funny ? It should be a red flag .
I do's funny , it's just I do remember that story because you tell it so well , and the part that I love the most about it is your golf club sound the tink , tink , tink , tink . I was looking forward to that . As you were telling this , I'm like I haven't heard you do . It's coming .
Yeah , it's a good sound and it's also like that . Oh man , can you imagine if you saw that like on the course , 120 degrees outside ? And we're just like , although we were not the first person to tilt a golf cart on horses ?
Yeah , they're like .
this happens pretty much every day , but gosh , yeah , oh man , just that backing down the hill and here we go , jeez .
That's what you get when already you guys are out there in calm springs in the summer and it's 120 degrees playing golf . Why ? Because you can play those courses for cheap in the summer .
Because nobody wants to play at 120 .
This is not this is not the clientele that's going to respect ?
no , exactly , it's not exactly . It's not your normal clientele . We're playing 60 holes a day , we're exhausted , we're hot , but man , oh my gosh , yeah , those were fun . Those were fun , oh man .
All right . So let's see . Okay , we all piled into the church van and headed to downtown to eat at a pizza restaurant called the Mellow Mushroom . Anybody who's been to the South knows the Mellow Mushroom . Those are good . You must understand there are tons of art students in this city .
Scad , savannah College of Art and Design , is here and responsible for the great shape Savannah is in today . I guess they all . I'm going to call it SCAD , scad , yeah , so I think we must have heard from somebody that they've pumped a lot of money in and kept buildings nice and whatnot .
So yeah , I think also , like just the fact that students were coming probably renting out houses , right , like , yeah , that whole thing of having a successful stool , yeah , would be really helpful for a size of a town , that size , right , that really makes a difference yeah , and a similar thing has happened here in the City of Orange .
Shout out or plug , but the City of Orange has , I think , one of the best sort of old town areas in certainly all of Southern California , maybe top three in California . It's great .
And it's coming up to the street . Fair guys , Top three in California .
It's great . It's great and it's coming up to the street . Fair guys , yeah , and one of the best parts about it is , well , not one of the best parts about it , but one of the reasons that it's so great now is because Chapman University is right there , yep , and they've really expanded the university and brought in a lot of students .
They've pumped a lot of money . I have heard that some people who live in old town and it's like this whole , it's a national historic district and it's all these 100 plus year old craftsman homes .
I know some residents aren't super thrilled because you know students live down there and parties and whatnot , but all the restaurants that are now there and the shops and everything . It is a super cool big traffic circle with a fountain in the middle of the park .
If you have a Savannah , it's great .
Yeah , yeah and you're listening in Southern California and you're like where should we go for dinner some weekend ? Go to the great , go to orange .
I worked at a church that was just right outside the corner there , and so you and I spent a lot of time in that area and it's it's so much fun , and the orange street fair was so much fun and we had good parking so we could just park at the church .
So we can just walk in the air conditioning , use the bathroom , walk back out , get a year old some . Luca mods listen to the American wake . Is that the name of the band ? Oh , yeah , yeah .
It's like Irish rock band . It's great . Good times , good times , uh , good times . So anyway , as .
I came home on Monday night , as drunk , as drunk can be Remember that song .
Oh yeah , oh yeah , it's a good one ,
¶ Lost Kids and Oldest Church
a lot of fun . So after lunch we went down to the riverfront and walked through the shops with the kids . We got back to the van and realized we'd lost a kid .
Oops , Now , this wouldn't be the last time Scott has has lost a kid .
Maybe that's a story for another time yeah , we'll do that story .
I've already done two . Oh was it before .
It was before that . Yeah , yeah , that was a good one . Uh , don't worry , we found her and got back to yeah .
Yeah , both kids made their way home , so All is well .
Don't worry , that's the moral of the story . You leave your kids with Scott . They might get lost , but they'll get found again .
They will Let your kids wander . It's the spirit of the world .
That's right . Scott and I didn't have much time before we had to go back into Savannah to Christ Church to do their youth . We rolled up early for something to set up music and stuff . We finished that and went down from the fourth floor youth room to the first floor for a quote covered dish dinner , which is a very fancy way to say potluck .
It's a very fancy way to say potluck . That was a very fancy way to say potluck . Right , it was such a cool church . It was all stacked up , remember , and like it was in that one of the squares and it was all like , yes , it was on the fourth floor and then there was like a social hall on the second floor .
It was right off of one of those squares .
Yes , it was a cool church . Yes , it was . So we got there a bit late , but there was still food to eat . We piled some food in and then we went back up to the youth room with the kids . We did our super creative Mad Libs song and of course , they loved it . That's another thing we need to see , if we can find the Mad Libs .
So we made a song that was basically based on Mad Libs and they could all fill in the words and then we would sing the song . Yeah , that was fun , it was great . We did a few more songs and then we did the talk again , a double header . We were really funny tonight , maybe the funniest we have ever been . But man , some of the kids were rocks .
Yeah , they just didn't get it . They didn't know , they didn't know what they were experiencing . The , the . What lay in front of them was one of the greatest things in the world . One girl in particular would not budge , but then Scott tripped over something and made some comment , and that was it for her . She got silly .
My , my basic youth ministry philosophy in case you can't tell listener is if I'm having a good time and I'm being silly and people are laughing at me , then they're not laughing at each other . And that's what I think middle schoolers and high schoolers want .
They don't want to have to be worried about , but I think everyone wants to be silly or have fun but they don't want to have to worry about it and it's like , hey , he's having fun , he's okay , I'm able to , now I can do it a little bit , yeah . So yeah , that's that won't be directed towards me . That's a basic like overall .
Philosophy is just like let the room , let the room lighten up a little bit yeah , that's good .
We had a lot of fun but we ran over time . I guess some kids oh boy had to had to bowl . We never actually got to talk to the kids or hang out with them afterwards because some of the adults came up and started talking to us bummer right adults .
This one couple we talked to decided to take us into their sanctuary and show us the oldest church in georgia oh , we thought cool , that is cool .
It is cool , right ? Yeah , I didn't know that I'm glad you saw that .
I didn't realize it was the oldest church in georgia . Hey , did you know that Savannah was designed by King ?
George George .
III , I think , george . Yeah , is that why it's called ?
Georgia Probably , probably , but I'm guessing that that's true . Yeah , very slow , aren't we ? They didn't call it George .
These people were odd in that cultish , over-involved sort of way . Don't get me wrong . They were nice and we even got the church's folk group CD in which the lady sang for , but they were odd .
Well , we've talked about this before . You have an ability to suck up all the like . Hey , you strange person who really enjoys playing Dungeons Dragons while dressed like a warlord and wearing that to church . You hang out with Andrew , yeah they seem to be attracted to my energy .
For some reason they do Interesting . Like you're too polite to walk away . Oh no , the church was really magnificent and that's about all I can say . Enormous organ , beautiful chandeliers and other great church building things that I don't know correct names for . So trust me it was really breathtaking . Love it , that's good Love it . So that was a busy Sunday .
Two talks , lots of kids , lots of food , lots of fun , lots of Savannah Again like . Tomorrow , next week . I mean yes , mean yes . Tomorrow in the story , but next week mrs wilkes boarding house street lights the most magnificent meal in the whole country .
Oh , it is my entire life . It's one that I remember what could be so good . It's one that I remember , don't you ? I mean , how many meals do you remember , like probably 15 , 20 .
Yeah , I don't know where I could like describe details about it . This is for sure one .
Yeah yeah , exactly so . People go and you remember that . And so one more little little little aside there's this great preaching illustration that talks about you know , this guy's calling to a radio show and says oh , I hear these sermons every Sunday . I don't remember the sermon , I don't remember what it said . By the next Sunday , why do I go and do this ?
And then a little while later , another person calls in and he says man , I eat all these meals every day and I don't remember most of them , but I keep eating them . Why do I keep doing this ?
I think I'd be a much different person if I've only had had half number of meals that I have , and I think that's a really good illustration for , like , there are things that just like out of that talk right , things got connected , things got brought together and you're not now going .
Oh yeah , because of that , I think this way , I act this way , I do this thing Because of that regular behavior . I think that that all kind of makes those pathways there and so , yes , but this is the boarding house . That is one of the meals that I remember .
So I'm hearing two things
¶ Church Attendance and Healthy Eating
from this . That illustration , the person who's saying if I had just had half the meals , you probably would be in better shape , thinner , feeling good . So I guess the parallel there is don't go to church every Sunday , right , just skip , like yeah , just half the time . That could be one takeaway for me , yeah , and correct me if I'm wrong .
And then the other thing is um , if you well , maybe this is related if you , if you just go to church and you get in the habit of eating the meal and you consume and consume and consume , then pretty soon you'll just be like fat .
Yeah , so you actually went the wrong direction with that illustration . So yeah , I know Surprising , but think of it more like starvation versus healthy , as opposed to overeating . I didn't consider that . No , you really didn't , but that's because you're a wee little man . You probably can survive on just one or two meals a week .
Just a left Twix and a pomegranate .
Pomegranatesate . I like that choice . Everybody next week . This is what's boarding house bye . Thank you .