"Now, most of us could turn down a temptation once. But when it's repeatedly put in front of you, you're more likely to give in eventually.."
I was with him so far..
"The verse says that not only did Joseph turn her down, but he avoided her as much as possible. Like, imagine with me that you have an addiction to Krispy Kremes. And every day, on your way to work, you have to drive past a Krispy Kreme store. At first, you could probably withstand the urge - you don't have time, you're trying to lose weight, you don't have the money. But day after day the "Hot Now" light calls to you, and before long you begin to rationalize that God must *want* you to stop, or the Hot Now light wouldn't happen to be on at that moment! You're only fifteen minutes late for work... but as the pounds add up and the money runs out, as your job suffers you realize: wouldn't it have been easier to just find an alternate route to work?"
Hm. I have a hard time with analogies, because my brain begins to break them down and I get distracted..but that's not his fault and people seem to be connecting to it, so..
"..So what we can learn from Joseph is.."
The story makes sense, the analogy makes a measure of sense...but how do they fit?
" that when he saw her "Hot Now" light was on -"
General gasp from congregation...Justin pauses as he realizes what he's said, looks at the ceiling, then offers,
"Man. That was alot closer than I meant it to be. Hm. Must be from God! Heh, heh.."
Congregation laughs, tension is broken as they prepare to hear the rest of his teaching like mature adults...
...but instead..
"..when he saw that her "Hot Now" light was on, he didn't(searching), he knew(got it), he knew(with confidence and hand gesture) ...that those were not his doughnuts!"
I could see the innocent surprise on his face as realized he had made it worse. By this point I was convulsing with laughter that was as silent as I could manage, fully aware that my reaction was visible to the entire congregation who would no doubt be even more distracted by their crude pastor's wife than the unfortunate analogy had already left them..but once I get the giggles it's hard for me to stop - and if it happens in an inappropriate setting, all the harder.
So, I rallied all my resolve to get my composure, and I *almost* had it - I really did, when:
I glanced up and saw the madly grinning, panting, *drooling* face of our dog Paisley staring at me from the balcony!!!!
This was simply too much. Noone else saw her, and she was drooling on the head of the oblivious woman beneath her! I succumbed to hysterics and covered my face as much as possible with both my hands as I hurried from the room. People who didn't know I was laughing probably thought I was crying..
I had been looking for that crazy dog all morning..just never occurred to me that she may sneak up to the balcony to watch the service.
