Well, it has been allergy season, so sorry if I cough or something, but again, I just need to see y'all. If you have allergies, can you just, like, give me a shout real quick? All right, just making sure I'm not alone in this. It's funny how if you have allergies, everybody's mad at you for having them when they don't have them. Anybody agree with that? It's like, I can't help that I'm sneezing. All right, I'm allergic to the world.

All right, so if I cough, that's why I'm sorry. But I'm expecting, excited to jump into this time. My name is Gage Henry. I'm the college and community pastor here, and I'm in a new season in my life, kind of. I have a one and a half year old. like a new season for one and a half years now.

But he's in this season.

You guys know if you're a parent.

You know the season.

The hide and seek stage where you start counting and then he finds you. You know what I mean? Like he literally cannot wait three seconds before he's like, here, here I am. And it made me think about some times in my life. The last time I actually played hide and seek, I know it's really interesting, was at a co-ed middle school party?

Crazy.

And I remember I knew the spot. This is my friend's house. Went up to the attic, found the spot. So excited. Put some Christmas lights kind of next to me to make sure in case they came. And then the moment we all know about. Well, you're like sitting there. and I my wife told me I'm a I'm a loud breather so I guess I knew this then I remember holding my breath

and I remember just like giddy excited you know me I'm a loud breather. So I guess I knew this then. I remember

holding my breath. And I remember just like, giddy excited. You know what I'm talking about?

You're about to get found or not? And they come into the room. You know the feeling? And you hear them shuffling around. And then you hear the attic part open. And I was like, as still as I could be holding my breath and I hear him say, he's not in here. I'm like, you're right. I'm not in there.

Let's go. Fired up, excited. Feeling could be holding my breath and I hear him say, he's not in here. And I'm like, you're right, I'm not in there.

Let's go.

Fired up, excited, feeling giddy.

And then a few minutes go by and then like five minutes go by and then seven minutes go by.

And you're like, huh.

This isn't as fun as I thought it'd be up here alone.

So I remember I like peer it out and I like knocked on the door like trying to like get people like hey I'm still here. And as I open the door, I heard singing. I'm like,

hold up. So I like kind of crawl out and I go outside the room and I walk over like the catwalk

that overlooks the living room. And everyone is singing happy birthday. And so I like slink down the stairs slowly. And as I'm singing, you know, you ever have like a best friend where you can have a whole argument with just your eyes? Spouses, you know what I'm talking about? You can say like five sentences and just like I look. I look at my best friend. He looks at me. He's like, sorry. And couldn't stop it. And so they're singing. And then they get done singing.

And then a guy looks at me and he says, huh, there you are, Gage.

We just got bored of looking for you.

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