I didn't get much out of the sermon this week.

We had a guest preacher here at Eastside, so I had the pleasure of doing two things I normally don't do in church:

1.  Listen to another preacher (besides Pastor Glen from Eastside).

2.  Sit with my wife and two little girls.

Unfortunately, only one of the two happened...

I love the stone pictured to the left.

Archeologists found it among the ruins of an ancient city situated on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea (the western border of Israel).  It probably just looks like some old stone to you.  Faint carvings are seen in the middle of the stone.  It's been weathered from the centuries that have passed since it was carved.

But I don't love the stone just because it's old.  I love it because of what that ancient carving says.

I was introduced last week to one of the "best Christians" in the Madison area.  His wife gave him that flattering title as she spoke of his kindness, compassion, and love for others.  There was just one little problem...

He didn't believe in Christ!

I had one of those weekends. 

On Saturday, I had a 9am soccer game here in Madison.  For the record, my sins shouldn't count before 10am on Saturday because...well, because it's 9am on Saturday!  And also for the record, when Jesus said to love your neighbor, I'm pretty sure he wasn't thinking about referees...

Life is always hard. 

I wish there was an easy way around that statement.  Unfortunately, there's not.  Life is hard.

The only question, then, is if you'd rather deal with the hard stuff now or later...

Sometimes toddlers can embarrass you.

Have you ever seen a one year-old stumbling around aimlessly, ecstatic about the newfound freedom that feet bring?  He bobs and weaves around the living room, tripping over everything, aware of nothing else but the joy of walking for the first time.  But then he embarrasses you...

Not many people enjoy suffering.  I know I don't...or at least, I didn't.

In the fall of 2000, I collapsed a lung playing soccer in Iowa.  Over the next three weeks, I had tubes stuck between my ribs, needles jabbed in my hands, leg braces that squeezed blood throughout my body every 15 minutes (great sleeping conditions!) and a staple shot into my lung to help it heal.  The doctors compared the pain of my chest tube to that of going through labor (but never mention that to a mother or they will yell at you).

What you believed about God yesterday doesn't matter.

You may have been in the pew every Sunday, studied the Bible every day in your home, and believed every teaching that Jesus gave.  But that doesn't matter.

Jesus once told a story to prove that very point...

For the first time in my life, I am at a loss for words.

It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that I can't talk.  A weekend cold turned into a raspy preaching voice, which went silent by Sunday evening.  Tuesday I was diagnosed with laryngitis and a viral infection.  It has been 120 hours since I've had a regular conversation...and counting.

For a guy whose silences are normally measured in nano-seconds, this is killing me.

It dawned on me during our sermon series on worship that the entire Christian life is based on exchanges.

In the first week of that series, we established the fact that we are always worshiping.  We are always putting something as a priority in our lives, always choosing whether God has the final say on a certain aspect of our lives or if something else bumps him down the list.  Good worship is always done because we want to thank God for his grace and forgiveness.  It's not an attempt to earn God's love, but simply an opportunity to put him first as a way to express our gratitude.