Wednesday night was fast approaching, and with it the teaching of my next lesson in the Lord's Prayer series. This time: "Lead us not into temptation."
I had planned on spending the afternoon preparing, and so I made my way home early from work. I whistled merrily as I got out of my car and strolled towards the house, little knowing how much temptation lurked inside the front door.
First, it was the cutting board from Tuesday's watermelon - sitting in the sink, still tarnished with white seeds and a chuck of rind that never made it to the rubbish bin. Dang. I can't prepare for a lesson on leading us not into temptation and just pass by a sink full of my own dirty dishes. So I washed it.
Next, it was the brownies. I hadn't eaten any snacks yet, so I ate the first one without a second thought. No problem. The next one was a little less justified, but tasty anyways, and if it turned out that I later regretted it, I could just use that as an example for giving into temptation.
My taste buds and stomach fully satisfied, I made it past the kitchen and into the dining room.
Zebra Cakes.
They were sitting there on the counter all alone, like some poor orphan who'd been neglected for the greater part of his natural life. But no. That would just be shameful - stuffing my face with pure tasty goodness while preparing my heart to talk to the children about God's power to provide a way out in those times of temptation. "No temptation has befallen you other than that which is common to man." Zebra Cakes are certainly common to man. So I passed them by.
I sat on the couch to read from the Good Book and quickly found myself tilting towards the horizontal state. Before long I was on my back, eyes half closed, with Benji's dino pillow secured comfortably behind my neck. Lead us not..... tem...ta.......t..........
I jumped to my feet. Just another epic failure of a role-model I was, sleeping on the job. So I walked around to get the blood flowin' and the mind churnin'. Things were on the up and up for a while, until...
Zebra Cakes.
This time, I gave right in. Without a thought to the lesson I was teaching or the book I was reading, I grabbed the box with greedy fingers and turned it upside down. Shake. I feared the worst. Shake. I dropped my jaw. Shake. No Zebra Cakes. Not even one.
The box was empty all along.
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Tomorrow I head off to Chicago with Denny on an evangelistic road trip. It promises to be a most exciting, challenging, and messily glorious adventure. If anyone's interested in keeping up, we'll be blogging along the way at socraticcup.blogspot.com.
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