It is true that we are writing again tonight.  Anyone who can make every Sunday over 160 times can surely write three evenings in a row.  Today was one of those days that may take time to figure out.  I helped with our junior high cross country meet today.  My idea was to help with timing the runners or something.  It turns out there were cows in part of the path of the kids.  So it was left to me to open the gate for the runners then be sure the cows did not escape the pasture.  Only in the state of Texas could this happen.  We survived, the race was run and no cows escaped.  It is another job well done.

I spent some time today thinking about the fact of not missing a Sunday in over three years.  Let me be honest to say it didn't even dawn on me the record was that high.  My thought was it may be two years at the most.  Now we are over 160 continuous weeks of not missing a Sunday morning.  Also let me be honest to tell you that is just insane.  No one should ever do anything like that.  Here is another insane truth though.  It may be quite awhile before the streak gets stopped.  Maybe that is more depressing than crazy or perhaps it is both.  Even the best of preachers will take time away from their pulpit.  Maybe this is why I don't qualify in either category.

I could talk about all of the reasons why this happened.  None of them make much sense at the moment.  It would be easy to take a Sunday off in various ways but it always seemed the easy way out.  There are many Saturdays during a holiday when I drove back to fulfill my duty.  My place was to be at work the next day no matter what the occasion might be.  I also made a conscious decision during chemo to not be away unless the therapy just wore me down.  My goal was to be faithful even with such a dire diagnosis.  There were more than a few Sundays when it was very difficult to speak.  The drugs just were doing a number on my physical health.  But there I was trying to make the statement that illness nor medicine would get to me.  Now there are other factors involved that we will save for another day. 

No one forced me into this record but myself.  All of this is by my own choosing.  Getting out of this will also be based on spiritual factors along with personal choices.  But you should also know how much I enjoy being there on Sundays.  I still get excited during the week putting material together for Sunday.  There is still a bit of a thrill in getting to talk about what was discovered in the study.  But it will have to end one day.  It is not a matter of if but when.

Bro. Trey