Austin Ave Unplugged #021 Breaking Eggshells and Extending the Metaphor

Cast: Lance Havens, Doug Crum, Shanna Klutts, Sarah Bowen


This is a relaxed, behind-the-scenes pass to real conversation with our ministers, staff, and volunteers. From faith and family to ministry moments and everyday life.

Let’s unplug… and tune in.


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Connect with a Minister
Doug Crum, Pulpit
Lance Havens, Associate
Jyles Wootton, Youth
Shanna Klutts, Children


Austin Avenue Church of Christ
1020 Austin Avenue
Brownwood, TX 76801
austinavechurch@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome back. This is AACC Unplugged. Taking advantage of the little throat thing I've going on. I sound like an FM DJ, I hope. Doubtful. At least AM. AM radio. I grew up on that. It's fine.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I know. I know.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

I mean Roadride in the tractor. I listen to it with my grandfather. Talk radio mainly.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

I sound like the Fisher Prize in the little red and yellow microphone that you sing into on the tape player.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Nice. All right. So uh I think we're going to talk about eggshells, right? Yes. It's a metaphor. Okay. It's not a simile, because a simile uses like or as. Correct. Yeah. Okay. But a metaphor, you just make a comparison. And so the uh metaphor that we've used around here is if you're if you're going to make an omelet, you got to crack some eggs.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Yes. And we are in the process of making a wonderful omelet.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

It's going to be amazing. And I and I I think the plan is to actually celebrate with like an omelet party.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

With a breakfast party, an omelet party. Yeah. I think that would be tremendous. That would be amazing. Yeah. All of our roofers are volunteers and just celebrate.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Yeah. Yeah. And so some of the omelets that we've been working on is obviously the roof. I think we've talked about that here before.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

Probably.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

And now we have an omelet going in the education wing hallway to the adult classes. Some people have seen that in the email or bulletin and they and they and they asked if we redid the paintings on the children's walls. And I'm like, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 1:40

No, no, no, no. We're not touching those. We're turning right to make the changes.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

When you go left, it's still the same, right? If you're standing at that T. At the ramp. Yes. Yes. At the ramp. And so we have that going on. What else have we had going on? I mean, in like relation to that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Well, upstairs in the backyard got completely redone.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

That's right. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:03

We're we're working on those. Okay. About to paint. Oh, okay. About to paint. Yeah. So it's still yeah, it's still under construction, but not a lot of visuals in terms of what our our members see or visitors. Um, but it's certainly I know in the back of your mind going, this needs to get done.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

Oh yes. Every time I walk into that room.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

Yeah, absolutely. It's one of those out-of-sight but not out of mind. Yes, yes. Always there.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

And so exactly a year ago, I guess not exactly a year, but Easter ago, uh, lunar calendar a year ago was when we took out the pews. Mm-hmm and put in chairs. And so this is and so when when we did this, we knew that like we went from seating for 900 to um I I forget the exact count, but we bought 600 chairs. We have around 400 out on a Sunday. And so we knew that for Easter or for a large funeral, or as we grew, that we would have to move the chairs from either a class or storage. And so this is the first time that we're geared up to do that. So I've been going around with spreadsheets and counting chairs and figuring out how to actually move the chairs basically from class four to the auditorium and then maybe from from class five. And so, yeah, that's been fun.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

Got some extra dollies, ordered some extra dollies, class volunteers.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, I actually stacked up the chairs to see how tall that you could get the stacks and still move them on the dollies and get through the doors. Yeah. Really important stuff, guys.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Yeah, Lance is like rain man with a dolly. He's walking around just spouting out numbers for 82, 480. We're like, what's going on?

unknown 3:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah. Uh yeah, and as part of that, I was I was doing that when I should have been working on my class Wednesday. And so I think I I think the material was really good because you and I taught it in 2022. Jordan River Rules. Yeah. Rule number three. You asked me to fill in this week, and I was like, I think I've done this before, even though I've never taught through that book. And then I looked it up and I made the mistake of watching the video from four years ago, and I was like, oh man, I cannot do it as good as two of us doing it together. And I I was tempted to press play on YouTube and just show it here. And I was like, Work's been done. I was like, I can't do that. And so anyway, it yeah, I mean, it's just it's just been a crazy week. Uh we we've had smoke in the building. Why the hell?

SPEAKER_03 4:40

Smoke flush?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

We've had flooding in the building. We've had horse flies. Yeah. So we're working through the plagues right now.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

And and crickets.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

And crickets. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Seems like they're in every room.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah. Mainly in the offices. Mainly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Mainly one in particular. Yeah, mainly. It does seem like we're down to one office. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

I think we they're still they're still holding on.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

I really thought that I I Googled it. Like, how long can a cricket survive without water and food? Because they're well, they have water, so it's not the issue. Yeah, we have plenty of things.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

And I'm supplying food to that one office in hopes that they will continue to stay there and hang on for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

They're still not migrate after three weeks. Yeah. Three or four at this point.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

But every time we endure a challenge, we say eggshells. Uh Giles has got a better one. Have y'all heard his glow stick?

SPEAKER_03 5:34

Oh, the glow stick, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

I haven't heard it.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Oh, if if you're gonna throw a rave, you gotta break glow sticks.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

Okay. Well there's celebration at the end there, too. Celebration.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Yeah. But Easter is kind of about eggshells, too. I mean, I think we can extend the metaphor without a doubt. I was trying to pass the ball.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

I think you were running with it just fine. I was watching. I feel like I'm over talking the room. I was cheering you on.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

Well, like with with broken eggshells. We like today's the day. Today's the start of uh on the calendar, whatever. We don't know the date, of course, but the the beginning of Jesus' broken body. Like a lot of destruction is about to happen, a lot of turmoil, a lot of stress, a lot of fear, anger, things we talked about this morning. Not anger, but maybe maybe they you know they he left them. The disciples were angry.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Um with him, with themselves, with with each other, yeah, for sure. With the the government.

SPEAKER_03 6:44

Yeah. They they left that supper, I'm sure, feeling even more confused because they they could not grasp what Jesus meant. And a lot of questions and a lot of correction at that last at those last moments.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah. Yeah. And so ultimately what they do, we understand from the gospels, is that they go into a room and they lock the door and and and they're kind of hiding. Again, with all those emotions. Um, I I wonder what the conversation there was uh amongst themselves. Were they saying, hey, you know, I just I I find this interesting because it happens throughout um history in in the Bible, you know, you have of the Israelites uh come up uh to the Jordan getting ready to pass for the first time, uh, and everybody's in fear. Uh everybody on the other side's like, we have no hope. Like they're like, we're we're dead, we've heard what happened uh at the the the crossing. Um the the the people living in Israel at the time in Canaan, they had more faith than the Israelites, um, in whom God was on their side. They're like, we and then so the same thing is with um here we have in the New Testament, the uh the opponents of Jesus were like, hey, don't forget, he said he was gonna rise in three days. Let's go make the tomb secure. I wonder if the disciples, the apostles were sitting there, like, yeah, he said he was gonna come back. Like, I wonder if they were anxiously waiting, uh or or what? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Well, we know at the end of Luke that they were saying things like, you know, some of our women amazed us. Uh, and we thought Jesus was gonna be the one and that he was gonna bring the restoration of Israel, but and yeah, and of course, you know, they're telling this to Jesus. Yeah, obviously. Glock amazed roads.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Um and so I I assume that the discussion of the twelve would have mirrored something like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

So somebody brought up something interesting uh at the Tuesday morning breakfast. They just mentioned, hey, if they really did believe that Jesus was going to come back in three days, uh what would they have done? How would they have acted differently? I mean, wouldn't they have just stayed in in the room? I mean, why else go out?

SPEAKER_04 9:17

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'd be the one with the palm fronds and tambourines and all that get ready.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

You know, be the be the the opening.

SPEAKER_04 9:29

If you actually believed what he said he was gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Yeah, I want I want to see I want to be there that moment. Um but I think they're probably were afraid that hey, if he is coming back, I don't want to mess anything up between now and then. They didn't want to stir up any more trouble.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Uh and of course it was Passover, so well, and I think too, just um to extend the metaphor further about broken eggshells is broken hearts. Um, you know, Peter, the the text says that he was cut to the heart.

SPEAKER_04 10:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

And just think how like prior to this, you know, Jesus says, you know, you're the rock, you know, this was not revealed to you by man, but from my father, when when Peter makes the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, I mean, Jesus like anoints him as like he's gonna be a leader, and yet he still had to pass through this season of brokenness, absolutely of denying Jesus, of being weak, of you know, you can't do it on uh your own strength and power, and just how we have to be willing to like if we're the egg to be broken 10,000 times is part of our sanctification and part of our maturation daily crucify the flesh.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Yeah. So how do you where do you find that balance between um leaning into the the brokenness, but not like running headfirst so that you can be broken for that? Like, where do we find that line of like he doesn't mean like okay, I want you to literally take a 60-pound timber, um, you know, bolt it into a cross, put wheels on it, and walk across America. How do you how do you find that balance?

SPEAKER_00 11:17

I think it's the the the metaphor again. I love metaphors, planting seeds, right? Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, you know, it doesn't bring forth new life. It doesn't multiply. And so when there's an area in your life that uh you need to confront that is a sin habit, I think you confront it and you're like, okay, God, I'm I'm willing to sit here for three days, right? And and for you to bring something else here into this area of my life in which there was sin and death, and now I want to crucify that with your help through your power, and I want something new to grow here. And then once something new grows there and you've cultivated it, then you move on to the next thing. But um to to just be willing to to undergo that for the rest of your life, right? That like we never get there, we're never done with that process. And and and to maybe be intentional about finding those areas of our life that we need to do that in.

SPEAKER_04 12:26

And finding space for that, you know. Um this season, this for youth ministry, for children's ministry, for you guys, it is a busy season. Um we have so much busyness going on. And uh we can get lost in the busyness, we can get lost in the preparation and uh miss being able to cultivate our hearts that way. Yeah. Um just because we refuse to stop and sit and be.

unknown 12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

One of the things that um I don't know what to call the class. What's Wayland's class called?

SPEAKER_04 13:05

Uh young adult. Young adults. The young adults.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

I was gonna say the young people. Yeah, uh people half my age.

SPEAKER_04 13:11

Youngish people.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Um uh what and what classroom are they in? 12 and a half years. Twelve. Well, there's a lot of people who are. Um so in twelve, uh Wayland over the last several weeks they've been going through uh a video discussion, a little bit of video, lots of discussion, uh, and then lots of expectation that things will happen outside of class, which according to the discussion, it has been happening. Yeah, but there's a four-week study this last week was week two of a four-week uh series on fasting. Uh, and that's one of those ways where you you know, like the the intent is um certainly not to brag about what you've done. Uh it's not even to say, hey, I want to, you know, cause pain to myself, but man, there's we were talking about it before the microphones were hot, we were talking about the the benefits of uh fasting and what it can do, and uh kind of getting into that rhythm of of how you go from you know the um the first little while was okay, and then there's kind of like this uh is it lethargy? Is that how you'd pronounce that word? Yes. Just uh just kind of out of it, and then then you have this acute awareness. Clarity. Um you become hypersensitive, acutely aware of what's going on around you. Um and I I think that can be really helpful to say when when you're filming those hunger pains or you know that desire to reach for the phone that you're fasting from, or that social media, it's just uh to be able to redirect your thoughts and say, okay, well, I I want God to be glorified through this. Um it's I think it can be incredibly helpful.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

And when those hangry thoughts come up and irritability and you're thin-skinned, like that's the work. Yes. Right? Because God is revealing and he's showing you like, hey, this is the things you need to crucify. Yeah. So you you know, if you're like, I just acted that way because I'm hangry, it's like, no, you acted that way because it's in you. The hunger brought it out. It was already there. It's the whole analogy that if you have tea in your cup and you get knocked, it's tea that comes out, right? So when you fast, like whatever comes out, it's what's in there.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

The fasting's not what put it there. Yeah. Reveals it. Yeah. And that's a chance to crack an egg, make an omelet.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

So if anybody owns a restaurant and wants to sponsor our podcast, you can name the omelet after us.

SPEAKER_04 15:44

Yeah. Speaking of sponsorships. Oh, yes. Kim, if you're watching, you know, you know. Yeah. If you know, you know, where you get all your books.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

There's a company out there that sells parkas and would like to sponsor me for one.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Spoiler Doug because he thinks it's cold in here. It is.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

I don't think.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

It I have cooled down. I am not sweating anymore.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

So uh I'll be vague, but there's a vendor in town that we've used so much through all the projects that they hand delivered their bill because it was too thick to put a stamp on.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

Yeah, she didn't want to put three stamps.

SPEAKER_04 16:25

She didn't want to put three stamps on it, so she came down to give it to us. Yeah. And we love seeing her, so please come back.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Yeah, we'll we'll we'll give you money.

SPEAKER_03 16:40

Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Oh, thank you. That I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

No, you're good. Thank you for letting me cool down. That wasn't quite humid in the office. Yeah, I don't think we fully explained that. Yeah. Uh we've we've had a lot of water in in some places. Fortunately, it wasn't like a few weeks ago when room five literally was about an inch deep in water. Yeah. But um my desk area got uh a little splash paddy. Yes, and um, so I had to shift from that and move into the library. But um there's just yeah, there's been a lot of of immediate change that needs to happen, a lot of adaptation. I think that we've handled really well, like clearing classrooms and vacuuming uh shampooing carpets and all that.

SPEAKER_04 17:29

Um Yeah, it kind of feels like a well-oiled machine right now. It really kind of does.

SPEAKER_03 17:33

We're we're getting kind of good at handling problems, minor emergencies. Minor emergencies. Um I think maybe on a on a normal casual day where everything has been smooth and and clear, that would have upset me. Um I I do tend to get upset with change.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Wait, you you have you have smooth days? Is that a normal thing? Does anybody else have smooth days?

SPEAKER_03 17:57

I have found consistencies and things. I I have to. Like like we've talked about, we have to find a space that um we can't be affected, that we we do have to detach, we do have to to not emotionally react to to change. Uh change is one of my big ones. Um noise as well. But I the banging on the poles and the chaos through the office, it it has conditioned me a lot to kind of zone zone out of noises and just kind of focus on what I need to.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

Uh, where were we? We were out somewhere, and Aaron was like, that's so loud. I'm like you get used to it.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Um this is nothing compared to banging on a pole right right next to your head where your eardrums are hurting, literally.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Uh your molars rattle.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Yeah. This job and and life in the past five years has really taught me where to focus. Um where to focus my energy, my emotions, my time with God that almost didn't exist about seven years ago. I was I was just slumbering away. Uh the the growth that the broken eggshells can can cause. It's it's pretty tremendous. It's pretty great.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

I I just nearly celebrate uh this sounds weird, and I don't believe it 100%, but I I do celebrate um difficulties. You're yeah um as as the the old workout saying goes, that that pain is just weakness leaving the body. I mean it's just like and I encourage my kids like Doug. Yeah, like when when you go through hard times, like just know that that is that is um creating you know opportunities for for new roads and growth and refining and that does not happen just by itself. Like you just so if you want to be somewhere else, it's I I say all the time, I'm prepare for a difficult journey, uh, so that every bump reminds you that you're going on the right path. And so, like, man, if it's if it's smooth and you're like, mm, something may not be right. Overall, you you should expect bumps and potholes and numbing out is just part of our culture.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Yeah, right. Yeah. Between streaming and just autoplays and all the processed food that we eat and alcohol and just everything in culture is designed to take you away from pain. And then when you intentionally step into pain through fasting or even setting aside an hour to pray, the prayer visual starts at four. Yeah. Um, that like like like you really are living separate and apart from the culture in in a way that like we have to be intentional about. Like pain doesn't come and find us. No, numbness does.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

Yeah, I I think a lot of our country, a lot of our culture, a a lot of the world, we are refusing to deal with pain. Like you said, the numbness, the the vices that we can find to refuse those um those moments of dealing and the processing of uh of pain is we can refuse, actively refuse it or actively intentionally engage it. And the latter is better.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah, and I would I would even go so far as to say it's not just pain, but even discomfort.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

Yes, any like anything.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Anything that we don't like um we immediately push away from. If somebody thinks differently than we do, we're like we're rejecting you. You're not allowed to say that. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to have anything to do with you. You're not allowed to say something. that that affects or offends me. You're not, you know, uh even I I just I I find it even therapeutic. Um and I I try to do this and uh is if I'm in a waiting room or if I'm sitting uh certainly at a table at a restaurant, but just like um just sit there and enjoy the waiting. I love being in a waiting room. Um and the only people I make eye contact with are people over the age of 70 because I mean the minute they sit down their phone is out of the pocket if they're under 60 for sure. And they're just and I'm just like you know what it's nice to just kind of look around like there's people around me there's that that I've never met before that there's there's a lot to pay attention to.

SPEAKER_03 22:48

Yeah. There really is.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

I I think it's special that you brought up waiting because I think that's the thing Tom Petty says is the hardest part, right? Um is that if you numb out right now you stream the video you eat the third Twinkie like whatever your numbing strategy is like it works right now. Right? But when you do the hard thing now you don't get the benefit right now. And so Jesus says you know again the seed like you put that seed in the ground you it doesn't spring up the next day not even the next week. Right. And so just like suffering now for something that's not going to benefit you until later really takes faith. And that and that waiting is like okay like okay Jesus I did the thing I told the truth I confronted my sin I did the hard thing I blocked the website like like whatever your thing is and then like you have to wait and you suffer in the waiting and it's like okay like that's that's where the thing is happening. That's that's the fire that's the sanctification you've got to be comfortable enough to sit there in that and to and to sometimes be miserable.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

Yeah Jesus in Gethsemane I mean just waiting for that suffering asking it for to be taken away but God's will for us is far better than what we would ever plan for ourselves. And I don't we don't have to go do that. We don't have to show up to be killed. Um gosh I'll suffer through what I need to. I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

I I think the towards the end of well not the end at the latter stages of Joseph's Joseph's life as he's finally introduced to his brothers uh and I think I feel like even in that moment he was still wrestling with what do I do I don't think he could have gotten there without the Potifer and his wife incident without the prison incident. I mean I think that was God just breaking eggs and breaking eggs and breaking eggs and like I don't think he could have gotten to a place um where he could forgive his brothers um and then be able to to see his dad and and see his dad just overjoyed that his whole family was was made whole again.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

Well and we entire that story and you know it just takes a few pages but in reality it was years and years and years and we have um you know Joseph had his one of his brothers there with him yeah for a a long time it was enough for them to run out of food again and then have to go back. And so having his brother with him and having that life in the balance and just waiting to see are they going to be faithful.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:56

Are they gonna come back and do what's right. And then seeing that I think that that was his affirmation that are they willing to sacrifice another brother for exactly exactly great point.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

That that gave me chills just that's all I've I've been pretty emotional this week. Not not overly emotional but like um emotional in a good way. Like things are things are hitting a little bit harder this week.

SPEAKER_04 26:27

Yeah I had to redo my teaching video three times crying yeah yeah so you know that happened cried yesterday during prayer time and cried today during prayer time.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Yeah oh yeah does it feel like that maybe this week has changed for you over the years.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

Oh absolutely without a doubt I I never really considered Easter. It was about egg hunts and just another I remember when it snowed.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

That's like it I mean we don't come from a tribe that's typically made a huge deal about any sort of liturgical calendar or holidays like Christmas in some groups does it get mentioned in Churches of Christ. Easter was always kind of like well yeah we kind of acknowledge that one but it you know we still have the egg hunts and all that stuff. But yeah it it it does seem like at least for me and my family that we've been more intentional and kind of recognizing this week and paying attention to it and that's great building to it.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Yeah it's it's something we have I have conversations with my family uh and my my grown kids uh we we talk about Lent and I know that's that's not for everybody it's not biblical uh I again I I've been using this phrase a lot it's not uh it's not unbiblical it's just non-biblical um it's not mentioned in the Bible to do this but fasting is and and really just thinking about um Jesus you know um set his eyes towards Jerusalem towards the pain and what he was going through um and God calls us to that he he calls us so much so that every week he says hey let's have a meal together so we can remember like don't forget that's it and so if you can find a way to help you remember the sacrifice of Jesus and to celebrate Jesus more fully um I I say go for it. If if it doesn't benefit you then then don't do it and certainly don't do it for so people will like you more it'll boost your social media page.

SPEAKER_04 28:37

But yeah Wayland and I were talking about that because the whole fasting thing and um he said you know there's a lot of great things about all of those things. There are tools but when the tool becomes an idol that's when you get into and I think that's why Lent is so scary to our tribe and um you know um fasting and all of those things anything anything can be an idol. So just have to be constant vigilance.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Yeah but you don't want to avoid talking about them to the place that where it seems like it's not a normal thing to do.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Yeah right and so I want to normalize doing the healthy practices that the church has done for two thousand years. Absolutely right um having like a like an appointed time of prayer right um when uh Peter and John are going to the temple it's like they're going at the time of prayer. Right. So like having a time of prayer is like a completely normal thing to do. Absolutely fasting is a completely normal thing to do.

SPEAKER_04 29:42

And should be happening regularly and it was not something that I grew up like people had to be called to fast. And I had a couple of friends in Arizona who started doing those things and we kind of looked at them like you're you're an odd fish, but okay. And so you know it it just never dawned on us to this is a normal thing. This is something that you should be doing before big decisions, before prayer, before um anything that you want to amplify yeah this this is something you should be doing. Jesus did not say if he said when.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Absolutely so uh the long reading extended sections of scripture publicly should be normal. I love that I loved that you did that Doug did it last week. Yes it was so wonderful. Young people were coming to me not only my kids other people were like what Doug did on Sunday like I I was riveted. Yes we get so addicted to the illustration and the joke and the punchline and all the stuff that we do in preaching I mean I do it you do it I mean it's it's part of preaching but sometimes you just need to go all the way and be like we're gonna read the text for 30 minutes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

And you read it well and that well and that matters sorry it is very humbling and convicting and is very helpful to be reminded there have been several people who have called or texted or or made comments about how they appreciated that and I just I I kind of half chuckled to myself a reminder like hey some of the best things that I can say are when I don't say anything it is just it is struck I mean I literally was just reading the Bible. Yes. And so like that is not about me at all. When people have nice things to say about my preaching it's when it's just the Bible and so I need to be reminded of like don't always try to be so clever and and come up with this new thing or this interesting thing of like hey like just present the gospel. I mean it is the it is the living word of God it's God inspired God breathing I think we have forgotten what our soul really needs.

SPEAKER_03 31:58

Yeah and it's the word. Absolutely and and that's that's great.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

I'm so glad to hear that the youth the young ones they're like oh we crave this yeah we want more they do they do because it's they are hungry and so there's just so many things that would be normal two thousand years ago to the early church that almost seem different or out of place to us. You know if somebody is sick, you know anoint them with oil like if I'm ever laid up the elders better show up and they better bring extra virgin olive oil or something because I mean it's scriptural the early church did it there's that there's just a lot of things that like I want to normalize again.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

Yeah absolutely Bob Goff's books he has a great story about going to the hospital to anoint someone with oil and he didn't have any because he's an elder in the church right yeah and he he uh he didn't have any on him because he's on a plane trip and so he had to find a unique way to find some oil I'll have to look that up that sounds like a fun story it is a great story. Okay so I don't know if Bob Goff is an elder in the church but Weird Al is right yes yes can you imagine if you're laid up so it can Weird Owl standard with with uh oil to to anoint you with can he sing to me too that guy's awesome he's so much fun he's the best okay we've talked about cracking eggs and fasting and weird owl I mean Tom Petty reference in there I mean we've yeah we I do have something to say egg shells make the best compost absolutely they do there you go extending the metaphor of the fertilizer goes back to the seed oh yeah protein put a seed I just connected that yeah there you go so can can we title this the metaphor metaphor metaphor podcast I will absolutely do that nice eggshells raves seeds yeah lots of it all right you gonna close this out yeah I I will Father God we we know that some folks that that are listening to this now will will have already passed uh this uh the Easter the the Sunday in which we celebrate um the resurrection of your son Jesus uh but we know that every day uh we have that opportunity uh we have that responsibility and Lord I pray that we have that desire that we live in such a way that as we go around people will know there is something different and we will have an opportunity to tell them about a risen Lord. God I just I'm so thankful for the love and forgiveness that you offered that you showed us uh through the giving of your son and Jesus thank you so much um as we sang and as we read that you you could have called um you know 10,000 angels 12 legions of angels uh to come and uh and fight for you uh but instead of being a a king that came to dominate you came to be a king um that would sacrifice uh and then you would open up that that palace uh that that life of uh to all of us not just in heaven but but right now and so Lord I just pray that we will be uh both humble uh and um celebratory as we remember uh your son Jesus God we just thank you so much um for um seeing the broken eggs of our lives and not walking away but instead choosing um uh to come and and heal us and to love us and walk with us and so we just want to glorify you for that it's all in uh your son's name that we pray amen