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A Time to Weep
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 My father was born and raised in Oklahoma. My mother went to high school in Oklahoma City. They met as students at Oklahoma University. I grew up with multiple trips per year to Oklahoma City to visit grandparents.
I attended my first Oklahoma Sooners football game at age six and have been a fan ever since. I went to college in Oklahoma City. My daughter was born in Oklahoma City. My first youth ministry was in Oklahoma City. I worked for three years for Oklahoma Christian University which is in Oklahoma City.
I stood in front of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City a few weeks after the terrorist bombing and cried. I even ran the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in honor of those who died at that terrorist bombing. I am a Texan but make no mistake that Oklahoma is very special to me.
A huge tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma this week. Moore is a suburb of Oklahoma City and is only 15 miles from the campus of Oklahoma University.
I served as our church's missionary liaison to our missionaries in Burkina Faso, Africa. When they returned from the mission field they moved to Moore, Oklahoma. The tornado hit Moore at about 3 pm. It wasn't until 5 pm that I received word that my missionary friends were okay. It wasn't until this evening that I realized how close they were to the destruction. The above map shows the tornado's path in the green area. The red x shows the location of my friends' home. It missed them by less than 200 yards.
Even though I have several things to share with you about teaching healthy sexuality, I cannot quit thinking about Moore, Oklahoma and that's okay.
Sometimes the greatest thing we can do is take a time out from the teachable moments and just live through the current moment together.
Even though He knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, when He saw Mary grieving over the death of her brother, Jesus wept. He didn't teach, He didn't tell her things would be okay. He didn't even rush to raise Lazarus from the dead. He wept.
Let us never forget to take time out to just be together and weep.
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