Reflections

Last night at the Well , Dean preached a pretty charged message on racism. He was talking about James 2 in the beginning section about not showing favoritism. It's sad that we live in the "Bible Belt" and yet we are by far the most racist part of the country. This is a hot issue that usually is not preached in church but Dean presented it really well. Did he upset some people? I'm sure. But I've learned that the Gospel upsets people, and as someone once said to Dean, if you're not making people mad, you're probably not doing your job.

Confession time: It makes me nervous when Dean preaches hard truth that may offend people. I worry about the fact that there's not a whole lot of security in church and Satan doesn't want people to hear this. Does this show a lack of faith on my part? Possibly. But I never want him to stop preaching Christ just because it looks like it might one day get dangerous. I'm really proud of him for his guts and fortitude.

I had a great time on the Couch with Matthew Robinson last night. Although some of the pictures were slightly embarrassing (thanks, mom), it was fun just to be up there answering his questions. The funny part was that I answered the serious and more difficult questions pretty well, but when he asked which store was my favorite at the mall, I just froze. I still don't have an answer to that question.

Confession number 2: I knew what I wanted to "challenge" people with, but I didn't have a scripture reference to back it up. It was basically that I wanted people to take ownership of the church and realize it's not about them but about people who aren't here yet. So even though I didn't have a verse, I still debated on bringing my Bible up there because just about everyone else does. I didn't want to look bad. Isn't that silly? But it's true. And I also had one of those experiences falling asleep last night where I kind of did a mental forehead slap about all the things I said that I can't believe I said in front of 300 people. This is just one of the many incidents that shows me that I absolutely don't have it all together.