Week Two : The 1 or the 99

Men of Fuel

A number of years ago, a friend of mine kept telling me about this TV show called “Lost”. Apparently he and his wife were completely hooked on this show, and said it was a “must see”. It was getting ready to start its 3rd season, and he offered to loan my wife and I the DVD set of the first two seasons. My wife and I watched the very first episode, and agreed that while it was interesting, it didn’t seem to captivate us like it had our friends.

Then we watched the second episode, and it was over. We became obsessed. To the point that after a few nights of little sleep we had to implement the “Two Episode Only” rule, as we were watching up to three shows a night.

I bet I am not alone. I bet everyone reading this E-mail can relate. It could have been a book, or a movie, a TV show, a sporting event, a conversation, a deal on which you worked, a test, a class that you took or something else that just grabbed us in such a way that every bit of us was committed to seeing what the outcome was going to be. Now while we might not be able to all agree on what the situation was, we could probably all agree that at some point it involved mental or emotional strain; intense, suppressed suspense, anxiety or excitement. Would you be surprised to know that is the definition of Tension?

That’s what makes a story great. Tension is what makes sporting events epic. It’s what makes almost anything we do memorable. Unfortunately I don’t think we leverage it like we could. You know who did………….Jesus.

You read through the bible and He never seemed rushed to give an answer or relieve the tension of a situation or conversation. Why? My guess is that His believed His message was more important than relieving the tension that hung in the air.

Last week we kicked off our series “The Greatest Story ever (mis)Told”. We looked at the first three verses, and what we see is a very tense situation that Jesus is about to address. Please join us for week two tomorrow “The One or the 99”

Please know that unlike the series Lost, you can join midstream. However like the show Lost, the first week was just putting things in place for the rest of the series.

Hope to see you guys in the AM

D.R. Carlson