My ex-roommate Steve had an uncle that had supposedly been in the mafia and then turned Baptist evangelist. His uncle was a combination of Joe Pesci in Goodfellas and Jim Bakker the televangelist gone wrong. I was lucky enough to be informed that Steve had an audio tape of one of his uncle's sermons that he insisted that I sit down and listen to. Steve insisted that I sit down and listen to this at least once a month until I pretty well knew the tape verbatim.
The first time Steve insisted that I listen to "the sermon from the mount" he said that "it would really put the spirit in me" and that listening to his uncle's tape "really motivated" him. Of course, when it came to Steve I had to wonder what it motivated him to do. Drink more? Be lazier? Watch more bad movies on the SyFy channel? Eat more "Drunken Man" dinners?
The first time I heard the time, I sat there and politely listened and I must say it did motivate me. It motivated me to barricade myself in my bedroom and put in ear protection so I wouldn't have to listen to it any more. About a month later history repeated itself and he wanted me to listen to it again. Let's just say there wasn't going to be a third time although Steve tried. I told him I had heard it before. Steve insisted that I hadn't. I gave Steve the Reader's Digest condensed version of the tape and Steve looked crushed that I had heard it before. He said he didn't remember me listening to it.
I told our friend about the tape and he confided in me "I have listened to that tape a thousand times." I guess I wasn't the only one that needed to "feel the spirit." Steve had the spirit coursing through his veins but it came in the form of Jack Daniels rather than the word of God.
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