Pastor Mike Nodland

There are two kinds of exaggerated expressions: one is simply ridiculous and the other is a reality. Of the first type, my favorite expressions is, “Lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut!”

Of the second, my mother was a master. She’d say, “Mike, if you lie one more time, I’m gonna wash your mouth out with soap.”

Thinking she’d never do that, I lied-and she did!

Likewise, playing a game one cold, dark, Minnesota winter’s night, we agreed that whoever lost, would be thrown into a snowbank. Surely, they’d never do that. I lost!

Supposing to have some fun, my brother-in-law and his buddy (both college wrestlers) grabbed me and threw me out into the snow. The problem was that my wife was supposed to open the storm door before they threw me out. She didn’t, but I went anyway! Part of my body went through the glass. M

oral: don’t play games with wrestlers.

It reminds me of Jacob in the Bible who wrestled with the angel of the LORD. He lost, too! Moral: don’t play games with God, either. Choose Him; because by default, you chose hell. What will it be?