You are listening to the Passion City Church, D.C. podcast.

To learn more about Passion City Church, including our gathering times in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., visit us online at passioncitychurch.com.

Today's talk comes from Pastor Ben Stewart.

Well, when I was a kid, we spent one Christmas at my grandma's house in Beaville, Texas.

And I remember my brother and I went to bed that night with visions of sugar plums dancing in our head.

So you can imagine our shock.

When I woke up the next morning, not to the promise of presence down the hall, but to a work boot,

nestled in my ribs and pushing me up and down in the bed and rhythm with a voice that was saying,

hey, hey, hey, get up. And it was my grandma's boyfriend, James. And I watched him go do the same thing to my brother,

kind of kick him awake. And then he walked to the door. And before he left the room, he turned

around and said, get dressed, get in a truck. So we got dressed and we got in the truck and started

driving down the highway. Now, James at this point was maybe like a hundred years old. So as we were driving,

he would just kind of veer off the road. We were sort of helping him stay on. And after a long time,

we went down main roads and then back roads. And then at one point, we're on no roads, just bumping

through a field in the dead center of nowhere. And I remember all of a sudden he just kind of parked in the middle of this

field and we watched all these cows run up and then line up shoulder to shoulder in a single file line.

I'm like, where are we? And then he looked at me and said, get out of the truck. So I got out of the

truck and it's freezing. I looked at me and he said, get the axe out of the back. So I went and got the axe and I went and started to go for the handle to get back in the truck and he hit the gas. And right as he hit the gas I just heard him yell, cut firewood! And then he drove off. And as the truck sort of disappeared in the distance, I remember watching my brother's face just kind of peeled against the back glass, like, where's he taking me? And I'm like, what am I doing here? And yet off they went. And then I looked.

And what had been blocked by the truck is now I saw there was a tree that had been filled by lightning

between me and this cattle. And so before I commenced to chopping, I remember I took a moment to pray to God. And I said, God,

what are you doing? You ever been there? Not in Beaville with some cows, but in some place

where you go, God, I don't understand what you're doing here.

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