JR. Forasteros - October 14, 2012
Werewolves
We all know what it is to have a beast within us, one we can't quite control. How does the Holy Spirit enable us to overcome the Wolf within?
From Series: "It Came From Within"
This is the season of the year when people start to think about monsters - ghosts and goblins and things that go bump in the night. We normally don't think of monsters having anything to do with the Church, but we'd be wrong. The reason people tell monster stories is that monsters are a safe way to talk about things we're not ready to admit about ourselves. We don't want to see ourselves as selfish, unforgiving, ill-tempered. So we tell stories. We create monsters. So today, we're going to shine some light in the cracks of our lives. Expose the monsters to the light. And hopefully it'll be fun!
More Messages From JR. Forasteros...
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When I was 17, I stole my own car.
I drove this hilariously awesome 81 Chevy Carpis Classic. Two tone brown. Bench seats in the front and back. It was a beast. Only had about 300 miles on it when I got it because my Mom bought it from a little old lady who had bought it new and only drove it to the grocery store.
I was a junior in high school, and I had gotten grounded for some reason. I don’t remember why now, but I’m 100% sure it was legitimate. The grounding was that I was not allowed to drive my car. Which meant I had to ride the bus to school.
17-year-old me did not find this acceptable. So I waited for my mom to leave for work, and I took my car out anyway. My mom didn’t find out until she got home from work that night and my car was gone.
She was understandably mad.
I say understandably because it’s pretty obvious that I was in the wrong here. My Mom bought me the car. I still lived in her house. And I broke her rules (to do whatever I had done to get grounded).
But you probably won’t be surprised to learn that I didn’t see it that way.
I was enraged. All that grew from a sense of entitlement – it didn’t matter where the car had come from; it was MINE. I deserved it. Why? Irrelevant. I DESERVED it, and I raged when my mom took it away from me as a punishment.
We’re going to talk about entitlement and privilege. We’re going to talk about how often we take God’s good gifts for granted and why that’s the path toward spiritual death.
