A Voice Calling Out in the Wilderness

This morning I headed into Kelowna with my church administrator (Stacey) for a satellite simulcast conference from Willow Creek church and I was looking forward to all the good teaching I was about to encounter. Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, John Maxwell just to mention a few. As I crested the hill near my old stomping grounds at Westside Alliance church the traffic was at a complete standstill. I made some calls and listened to the radio to find out what had happened and discovered that a Pepsi truck had caught fire at 4 in the morning and they were still trying clean it up. What that means for all you non-kelownaites is that a stretch of hwy that would normally take us 10 minutes to drive had now turned into a 3 hour stretch of hwy! We sat in my pickup truck and breathed super heated vehicle exhaust air mixed with the already hot morning air and the sun beating down into the cab through the front windshield. I had sweat dripping down my back and heading straight into the "nether regions of my backside" if you get my drift. As we slowly rolled along I "cracked" and so did Stacey! We turned on the radio tunes as loud as we could and began to dance and sing inside the cab. We were having a great ole time. We ended up beside a couple of motor homes and we joked about asking to use their washroom if things took much longer. Then I said it would be great if they had some ice water in their fridge and almost before I could finish the sentence Stacey hung her head out the window and asked the lovely senior couple if they had any cold water in their fridge. The older lady laughed, hopped out of her seat, disappeared into the back of the motor home and reappeared with two ice cold water bottles! We sipped on that refreshing beverage as we inched closer and closer to our destination. We arrived just in time to hear the second speaker Rick Warren give a passionate message about Moses's shepherds staff turned "Rod of God". It was a great message, one that I will never forget. I love to hear the preaching of the word of God. Even though it is probably the worst form of communication out there (the foolishness of preaching) and sometimes it is painful to listen to, I still love to hear that lonely voice proclaiming eternal truths. The long tense ride into town paled and was quickly forgotten as I settled in and listened to the man of God calling out, seeking to affect our hearts and minds for the kingdom of God. I head back tomorrow for day two and hopefully it goes much better.