It’s not every night you get to speak at church AND get pulled over by a cop. Last night was one of those nights.
As I mentioned earlier, I spoke at twentyfourseven last night and had a blast. Here’s a random shot of me hanging out in the bathroom a few minutes before I spoke.
The message went okay, I think. Always tough to objectively think back to how you did. I could have been smoother, I could have not let the kids goof around with me so much at the beginning of the message, I could have mentioned the name of the series Jake has been doing like I had planned. But otherwise I made it through and made my points and had a few kids thank me afterward, so I think it was a success.
I shot hoops with the guys for a few minutes after the service and then took off for home. Our church is in the middle of cornfields, and to get back to civilization you need to drive through the tiny borough of Christiana. You HAVE to drive slow through Christiana or you WILL get pulled over. Having been pulled over once in Christiana already in my life, I drove through the borough slowly as always. I pulled out onto Rte 41 and instantly there’s flashing lights behind me. You’ve got to be kidding.
You know that pit in your stomach you get when you get pulled over? Well, I didn’t have it this time. I knew I hadn’t been speeding. Wasn’t sure what I did wrong. The officer asked for my info and informed me that I had not come to a “complete stop” at the last stop sign. A “rolling stop” he called it. Whatever.
So while I sat there wondering if this was going to cost me any money I figured, why not take a picture? (trust me, that bright light behind me is the cop’s spotlight. Although it kinda looks like I’m parked in front of a nuclear explosion.)
Whether it was my clean record or the fact that I wept like a baby, I don’t know, but he let me off with just a warning. A slap on the wrist, but not on the wallet…so that was nice.
I think this was probably the 10th time I’ve been pulled over in my life in 16 years of driving. Most of those were from the first 6 years when I was living in Massachusetts. Lots of police on the prowl up there in New England. Of those 10 times, I think I’ve received 4 or 5 tickets.
What about you? How many times have you been pulled over (and for what)? And how many of those resulted in tickets?