Kyle Lake's Last Sermon

Many of you have probably heard of the tragic electrocution of a pastor in Waco, Tx, last week. Kyle Lake was popular with the students of Baylords, a dynamic leader in the Emergent Church movement, a husband, and the father of two young children.

He was electrocuted when he touched a microphone while standing in a baptismal. A couple days earlier, our church's music pastor was shocked so severely he was disoriented for several minutes after he touched a microphone while standing on bare concrete.

There are a couple of amazing things surround Kyle Lake's death. First, think about how this came to be the last sermon he wrote:

Live. And Live Well.

BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now.

On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun.

If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE.

Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time.

If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well.

Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed.

If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old’s nose, don’t be disgusted if the Kleenex didn’t catch it all… because soon he’ll be wiping his own.

If you’ve recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well.

At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift. (source)

He didn't get to give that sermon himself, but he left it behind, where it has been copied and posted and spread more than had he not died while preparing for a baptism.

And then there was the surprise speaker at the church that day, an author who was suddenly in town and available to speak -- interestingly, just as Lake's church was going to spend a month on the book the author had written.

The author is Terry Esau, author of the book Surprise Me, which says in its blurb:

Surprise me God. What if you started the next thirty days with those three words? No agendas, no plans other than waiting on God with eager anticipation of what is about to happen next.

Surprise Me invites you to approach your spiritual life with openness and an eye for the unexpected to discover God working in the everyday moments in your life, from the spectacular to the mundane. Through his own journey with the "Surprise Me" faith experiment, author Terry Esau illustrates how the good and bad surprises of life draw you into a deeper relationship with God. (emphasis added)

Lake's church was going to start a 30-day "Surprise me" spiritual experiment that Sunday. Today its young parishoners are struggling with what to make of the terrible surprise that occured in their baptismal font as they looked on in shock and horror.

What can one make of such a thing? Mere coincidence? A joke by God?

No coincidences, no jokes -- God definitely doesn't work that way -- but also no clues. When something like this happens, it reminds us that we cannot understand the plans of God. Why a pastor, husband and father of two died in such a horrible circumstance. Why Esau ended up in Waco that day. Why.