Psalm 8, Proverbs 8, Joshua 8, Isaiah 8, Job 8

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Oops.  Got a bit sidetracked.  I just taught Sunday School for the first time, so I was focusing on the passage that I was going to teach for the last few days.  And then I went camping, which was awesome.  Funny how camping is so much more fun now.  I used to hate camping as a kid.  Now I finally appreciate the little things, like rowing a boat, or seeing a sky full of stars.  It’s also the only time I can imagine where killing fish, wielding hatchets, or setting fires is socially acceptable.  You do that kind of thing in real life and you’re a serial killer.

Fun note: we almost started the great fire of 2011 (it’s every four years in San Diego, right?)  It all began after dinner, where we were all too full from meat, corn, and fish to fully enjoy the other campfire food that we had brought.  So we figured we’d play a game of Settlers, then start a new fire afterward to eat the S’mores and Smokies. (We would have played Monopoly Deal, but my copy’s at Terrence’s place.  If you’re reading this, Terrence, this is a note from me to remind you to remind me to remind you to bring me back my copy.)

The problem was that we only took one car to the campsite, so we had to skimp on some things, like sufficient amounts of firewood.  No problem; we just hatchet-ed a bunch of firewood from the surrounding area and brought it back near our pit.

Right before we started playing, one of us noticed that a log in our fire was pretty much unburnt, so he fetched it out of the fire and placed it near the rest of the wood.  All of us saw him do it, but no one thought anything of it.  Then we retired to the tent to set up Catan.

As we were battling it out, we all noticed a really strong burning smell, but no one really said anything about it.  I mean, we had all just been eating around a firepit for like two hours; EVERYTHING smelled like smoke.  And besides, I was too busy worrying about the lack of sheep in the game because my stupid 8 wouldn’t roll.  (I WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE A MONOPOLY!!!!!)

After Brian whooped us twice (I think he’s won every single game of regular Settlers I’ve ever played with him),  I was eager to wash away the taste of defeat with S’mores and Smokies.  But…where did our firewood go?  And why was there a bunch of ashes where it used to be?

Well, the log we retrieved was MOSTLY unburnt.  So it set our firewood aflame…right next to a bottle of lighter fluid.

Fortunately, we had placed the pile of firewood (and lighter fluid) on non-flammable ground, (what’s the opposite of flammable?  Inflammable means flammable, right?) so there really couldn’t have been much damage.  And I just researched lighter fluid fires on YouTube, and they seem kinda lame.  So…meh, MLIA.  Whatever.  At the time, it was pretty scary.

…

I mentioned that I taught Sunday School for the first time, right?  It’s pretty tough.  It doesn’t help that I had a passage that was (I think) kind of hard.  Exodus 15-19.  Quick, off the top of your head, what’s that about?  Well, I’ll tell you.  It starts right after the Egyptians drown in the Red Sea…and ends right before the Ten Commandments.  So I was teaching on Moses’ song of celebration, the Israelites grumbling (three times), and God laying out the tenets of His covenant to the Israelites.  Keep in mind, I was teaching 2nd to 5th graders.

I know I should have realized this before, but it’s REALLY REALLY hard to keep the attention of young kids.  I thought I’d be able to hold their attention longer by continually asking questions, but that only works so well.  So I was feeling pretty good while teaching on Moses’ song (since it was the beginning).  I was feeling somewhat OK for the middle (since it’s got manna, and that’s kind of like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs).  But by the time I got to the end, I was kind of panicking.  I just couldn’t think of a fun way of presenting that God promised Israel that they would be a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.  It didn’t help that I had to explain the meaning nearly every word.

But you know, after the lesson, I was sitting with my kids (I teach Matthew, Caleb, Megan, and Cameron).  And they have this workbook that they fill out based upon the lesson.  And of course, the page is a fill-in-the-blank, on (what else?) the specifics of God’s covenant.

I’m thinking to myself: OK, these kids didn’t know what “treasured”, “possession”, “kingdom”, “priests”, or “holy” meant.  I’m probably going to have to go over this again.  Then Megan, bless her heart, asks me, “How do you spell ‘possession’?”

I’m like…”What did you say?”

“How do you spell ‘possession’?”

“P-O-S-S-E-S-S-I-O-N”

“Oh, like Mississippi!”

“Yeah, like Mississippi.”

Turns out, Cameron didn’t need help either.  (He has really good handwriting, too.)  And the others weren’t far off either.

I realize this more and more each week I’m with them…but man, these kids soak in everything, even if they don’t seem like they are.  I’m just being insecure in wanting them to appear attentive for twenty minutes, which, when you think about it, is a really long time.  My parents complain about sermons that long.  I would too, if I wasn’t already conditioned by Eastbay and Lighthouse.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been thinking about these past few days.

-Tim

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