{"id":43647,"date":"2012-03-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/kids-playing-mud-football-realize-theyre-playing-in-sewage\/"},"modified":"2012-03-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T00:00:00","slug":"kids-playing-mud-football-realize-theyre-playing-in-sewage","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/kids-playing-mud-football-realize-theyre-playing-in-sewage\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids Playing Mud Football Realize They’re Playing in Sewage"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his book Glorious Mess<\/em><\/a>, Mike Howerton tells the following story about a childhood experience playing "mud football." After a huge downpour, he and his neighborhood buddies found a gully filled with two inches of standing water. Howerton describes what happened next:<\/p>\n\n

\n

We had a blast. Every tackle would send you sliding for yards and yards. The ball was like a greased pig, which meant tons of fumbles and gang tackles and laughter.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

I remember tackling one of [my friends] and watching him skim across the surface of the water for something like four miles and thinking, "I might be in heaven." When he got up, I noticed something stuck on his shoulder. I peered closer, wondering, "What is that?" Now, there was a huge, concrete sewage runoff drain right next to the gully. And apparently during heavy rains, all sorts of things got backed up, and I don't know if the apartment complex immediately next to the school burst a pipe or what, but I do know we didn't really pay attention to the flotsam in the gully until I noticed that something on Craig's shoulder. I peered closer and suddenly realized it was a soaking piece of toilet paper. In that same instant I realized the smell surrounding me was a bit more pungent than a typical mud football game ought to smell. I yelled out, "We're playing in POOP WATER!" and we bolted for home as fast as we could.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

Talk about an instant of mental transformation …. Sometimes in life we need our thinking transformed. Sometimes we think we're having fun until we realize we're rolling around in sewage.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3627,3663,3664,4154,4222,4746,4747,4803,4882,4977,4982,5090,5302],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-43647","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-cleansing","tax_ctp_tags-confession","tax_ctp_tags-confession-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-holiness","tax_ctp_tags-immorality","tax_ctp_tags-purification","tax_ctp_tags-purity","tax_ctp_tags-renewing-the-mind","tax_ctp_tags-sanctification","tax_ctp_tags-sin","tax_ctp_tags-sinful-pleasure","tax_ctp_tags-struggle-against-sin","tax_ctp_tags-worldliness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nKids Playing Mud Football Realize They're Playing in Sewage - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/kids-playing-mud-football-realize-theyre-playing-in-sewage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kids Playing Mud Football Realize They're Playing in Sewage - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his book Glorious Mess, Mike Howerton tells the following story about a childhood experience playing "mud football." 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