The Parables of Jesus | Parables of the Weeds and Seeds | Matthew 13:24-33 | Week 1 South Fellowship Church

A week ago today, my family and I were leaving to go to a week at Mount Hermon.  I taught there last week, and the family went and had an awesome time.  Kelly and I are both Type A people.  Our flight left at 8:45 and we left the house at 6:00 am because we like to be on time.  If you followed the news last Sunday, you might have heard there was a little bit of an accident on Peña Boulevard.  If you know DIA, you know that Peña's really the only way to get into that airport.  We left our house at 6:00 and about 6:30 we're at that stretch of Peña that juts north and then heads east to the final stretch that takes you into the airport.  When we turned east, we hit gridlock traffic like I've never seen on that street before!  It just came to an absolute screeching halt!  Kelly and I looked at each other and said, "This isn't good," and started Googling what's going on.  Turns out there was a huge accident up front.  From 6:30 to 7:00, we just sat there and didn't move at all.  We saw (on Apple Maps) there was a shortcut you could take and get off the road and sort of circumvent the issue a little bit.  We did that and ended up in another line of cars.  You may have heard that there were some people who took a short cut into an open field and they got absolutely stuck; that wasn't us, but we could see them from where we were.  As we were waiting, I was saying, "Okay, if we get there 7:45 (an hour before our flight leaves) we'll be just fine."  It hit 7:45 and we were still stuck.  Then I said, "If we get to the airport by 8:00, I think we're going to be okay."  We started to move a little bit more, but we didn't pull into the airport until 8:10.  I went and parked in short-term parking, which, by the way, if you do that for a whole week, costs you $175, I found out.  We ran into the airport, got through security, begging and pleading with people to let us through.  I was in such a hurry I put all my kids luggage on the conveyor belt to go through security, and I left mine there.  We got down to the train and I'm standing there empty handed.  Kelly says to me, "Where's your bag?"  I went, "Oh, I blew it!"  I ran back and said, "It's going to be easier to find a flight for one than it is five.  You guys get on the flight.  You go!"  I ran back to security and asked if they had a bag and they asked, "Does it have a car seat on it?"  "Yeah, I'm that idiot."  I run up to the gate.....it's three minutes after the flight was suppose to have taken off.  As I'm running up, they ask, "Are you Mr. Paulson?"  "Yes, thank you, Jesus!"  They said, "Reid was really worried you weren't going to make this flight!"  
As we were waiting in line, we saw people who decided that waiting in line wasn't going to be for them; they were going to miss their flight as most of us waiting in line.  So they tried to turn around and get out of the line.  This guy had a Jeep so I guess he thought he would be okay, but, if you remember, it rained pretty hard the Saturday before, and that field was absolutely mud.  I didn't get him in the picture, but he was standing with his arms crossed looking at what was formerly his car.  I thought to myself, "Yeah, waiting's hard."  Especially when you're waiting and you don't have any sort of time frame for when that next thing is coming.  Waiting's really difficult.  I think our tendency, as human beings, is to try to look for any short cut that we can, in order to get around the waiting.  How many of you have tried to circumvent the line at an amusement park?  We wait for food to come at a restaurant.  Or maybe it's waiting for that next season of life.  In high school, just waiting to get done so we can get to college.  In college, waiting to get done so we can find that job.....or at least our parents are waiting for us to find that job.  Or maybe it's single and I'm waiting to get married.  Or maybe it's that next season, that next job, that next opportunity.  Wai