Creating a sermon is a funny thing. Early on in my studies I get an idea, and that idea usually translates into a rough outline and a working title. But later, as I wrestle with the text, and as it wrestles with me, sometimes we move together in directions I never would have expected.

That happened again this past week. I started with the idea of "Caught Up Short." That theme seemed to fit, both for Advent and for the words of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5. So often we meander along through life, not paying much attention to things around us, just going our own way and doing our own thing, and then something suddenly happens that catches us up short. Something stops us in our tracks.

It can be a good thing: a friend we haven't seen for years stops by; a letter arrives in the mail with news of a distant relative; there's a check from some inheritance we never even knew about.

Other times it's bad to be caught up short. Something happens that shocks or frightens us. One of our members had a heart attack on Tuesday. Healthy as a horse, otherwise -- working out, eating right; no history of heart problems in his family. But suddenly he's doubled over in pain. And when they get him to the emergency room, his heart stops three different times! He tells me what it feels like to have the paddles on his chest and the current zapping him! He was caught up short!

It can happen to any of us: an accident that nearly kills us, or a hard report comes from our doctor after a routine check-up, or someone breaks into our home and we feel violated. We're stopped in our tracks. We're caught up short. We're surprised and overwhelmed.

A similar theme runs through Paul's correspondence with the Thessalonian church. "Jesus is coming!" he shouts. When you least expect Him. Like a thief in the night. Whatever you are doing at the time, you'll be caught up short. Therefore, live in a way that prepares you for His coming. "May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

That's a good thing to think about during Advent. When Jesus came to Bethlehem on the first Christmas nearly everybody was caught up short: Mary wasn't ready to have a baby; Joseph wasn't ready to get married to a pregnant woman; The inn keeper wasn't ready to have Joseph and Mary stay; The shepherds weren't ready to travel; The wise men weren't ready to find a baby in a barn; Herod wasn't ready for a challenger to his throne, even if the baby was only months old at the time. Everybody was "caught up short." And that, says Paul, is what will happen to those who aren't ready on the day when Jesus comes back as King. They will be caught up short, and not found "blameless."

But then I was caught up short, and it made me think about the theme in a whole new way. I was in a store, and there was music playing from the speakers overhead. Helen Reddy sang an old song called "Delta Dawn". She tells the strange story of a "crazy" woman down in Texas: