Hank Smith:                      00:03                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week’s Come, Follow Me lesson. John, Joseph of Egypt, Genesis chapters 37 through 41. It’s your turn to give us a followHIM Favorites story.

John Bytheway:               00:18                   I remember this interesting phrase in the story of Joseph when Potiphar’s wife grabbed him. This is Genesis 39:12. She caught him by his garment saying, “Lie with me,” and he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out. Remember that phrase, “Got him out. ” Now, rewind way back to the 20th century, probably the ’70s. I am playing Little League baseball at Lindsey Gardens in Salt Lake City. And I’m a center fielder. And my coach used to, because we’re like, I don’t know, eight or nine or 10. He used to come out and yell at us, “Think.” He would just yell, “Think.” Our job was to say something that wouldn’t occur to us, was, “What will I do if the ball comes to me? ” This is a great skill. In little league. I actually did. I thought there’s a runner on first.

                                           01:13                   There’s one out. If the ball is on the fly, I’ll try to catch it. I’ll throw it to second base. If it’s a grounder, I’ll catch it. I’ll probably watch the runner, throw it to second or third. I’ve got it all figured out. Our pitcher winds up, throws the ball, and the batter smacks it, and it’s right to me in the center field. But it was a little short. I’m running forward, and out of the corner of my eye, I can see the runner taking off first base. And I thought, “He doesn’t think I’m gonna catch it, because you gotta tag up. You gotta stay on first until the ball is caught.” He’s running to second. I run up, and I caught the ball, and I winged it to the second baseman. Who got the guy out? I got him out.

Hank Smith:                      01:55                   Nice job.

John Bytheway:               01:58                   I remember Coach Mark Duran running out of the dugout, screaming, “Nice job, Bytheway.” What a great lesson that was to think first what you’re gonna do if something comes up. Because of that, I knew exactly what to do. That was like my only glory moment of Little League Baseball.

Hank Smith:                      02:23                   Hey, people don’t know. John Bytheway is quite an athlete.

John Bytheway:               02:26                   Oh, yeah.

Hank Smith:                      02:26                   Yeah,

John Bytheway:               02:27                   Thanks Hank. All my high school friends are shaking their head right now. I love the idea of think what you’re gonna do first. I wrote it up for the New Era. I said, “You know when someone says think fast and throws a ball at you?”

Hank Smith:                      02:40                   Right.

John Bytheway:               02:41                   So I thought a fun title would be, “It’s Better to Think First Than Think Fast.” The New Era did not like my title, so they changed it to Think First, Act Fast, but I still like, it’s better to think first than to think fast.

Hank Smith:                      02:55                   I like yours better too.

John Bytheway:               02:57                   That was the lesson. I knew what I was gonna do before the situation came, and you probably know that lots of church leaders have talked about that. If you feel like you’re in a place where you might be tempted, what are you gonna do? Think about it first, then you can get out.

Hank Smith:                      03:14                   That’s beautiful, John. You’d be crazy to think he’s making this decision right now. No, he made this decision a long time ago. This was just the moment he, the, the decision was actually public, but he had made that decision a long time ago. “How could I do this?” He says, “How could I do this?” I love it. It can be a good skill, by the way, that if you’re tempted, run. Physically.

John Bytheway:               03:38                   Yeah. Get out.

Hank Smith:                      03:38                   Get out of there.

John Bytheway:               03:40                   Exactly. Don’t sit and think about it. Make a chart. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this sin here?

Hank Smith:                      03:49                   Yeah, come here, Potiphar’s wife. Let’s talk through this. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We’re with Dr. Brad Wilcox this week. Brad’s one of our favorite people in the whole world, and you’re gonna love what he does with these chapters, and then come back here next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorites.