Weekly sermons from our Central Lutheran Church preaching team plus quick reflections from Pastor Ryan Braley.
Real talk, ancient wisdom, and honest questions — all designed to help you learn, grow, and find encouragement when you need it most.
At Central, our mission is simple: FOLLOW Jesus together, be a community where you BELONG, and LOVE our neighbors across the street and around the world.
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A single moment can expose a whole pattern: you think you’re reacting to a game, a comment, or a minor inconvenience, but what’s really showing up is an attachment you didn’t know you had. Ryan shares a vivid story from his younger days as a Denver Broncos superfan, when a last-minute loss didn’t just disappoint him, it drained him. That drive home turns into an honest spiritual wake-up call: why does this have so much power over me?
From there, we widen the lens to Advent, a season designed for waiting, watching, and staying awake. We talk about how ordinary things like sports, entertainment, alcohol, or even our phones aren’t automatically “good” or “bad,” but they can slide out of balance faster than we expect. Ryan brings in a story he heard from Josh Duhamel about recognizing an unhealthy relationship with vodka Red Bulls and finally dialing it back, not out of shame, but out of clarity.
The practical takeaway is simple and challenging: pay attention to your reactions. If you’re having a level eight response to a level five problem, or a level nine response to a level one slight, pause and get curious. What are you protecting? What are you depending on? What feels “out of whack” right now? We end with the hope that Jesus’ words are real for you this Advent: life to the full, not life run by compulsions and overreactions. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review if it helps, then tell us what you’re noticing in your own life.
Hey everyone, Olivia here. Pastor Ryan is on sabbatical, so I will be re-releasing some of our most listened to episodes from the Reflections podcast. Today's episode originally aired in December of 2024. This episode invites us to get serious about a simple question. Why do certain things bother us so much? Enjoy.
What is up, everybody? Hey, my name is Ryan, and I am a pastor here in Elk River, Minnesota, the greatest city in all of Minnesota. You know it's true. Hey, and uh welcome to our Reflections podcast. It's Advent season. I mentioned last week a bit about what Advent is all about, but Advent is this time of waiting and expecting and kind of having our eyes open. And I want to tell you a couple of stories because I think part of what I want to you know invite us to today is like, hey, how can we live our lives with our eyes wide open to notice things that maybe other people might not notice? So here's a really, I guess, kind of cheeky
example. When I was younger, I'm a huge Denver Broncos fan. So forgive the sports analogy and story here, but it's what I know, it's my language. So when I was younger, I was like a diehard Broncos fan. I lived and die with the Broncos. I loved it. I still do, but it's changed, and here's why. When I was about 20, I don't know, 21, 22, I was over at a buddy's house watching the Broncos play the Dolphins. I'll never forget it. It was like a Monday night game, and we're over there hanging out. It was a late game because those games would go late. And the Broncos scored a touchdown right at the end, like with a minute to go in the game, and it seemed like we were gonna win. And so I was elated. Me and my buddy were celebrating, we were cheering, we're screaming because we were maniacs, like sometimes young men can be. And we're like high-fiving and hugging, and like the elation looking back now, is like that's a lot, it's excessive a bit, which is uh it's fandom, you know. So I was like going crazy. Well, we still had like 45 seconds to go, and we kicked off to the Dolphins, and they ran the ball back like 60 yards, and immediately the elation in my spirit was gone, and I was like, uh-oh. And I realized we might not win this game. And then the Dolphins had like one or two good passes downfield, and with like five seconds to go, the Dolphins kicked a field goal and won the game. Now, if you're a Vikings fan, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Just kidding. I love you guys, I love you Vikings fans, but yeah, I I was devastated. And this is like week 12. It wasn't like a playoff game or the Super Bowl. It was like week 12, you know, in at home against the Dolphins. But I I left that night like depleted. I'm not kid and I'm not exaggerating. I drove home and I was like, what is I am like not in a good way. And I I had this moment like of awakening where I was like, what on earth just happened? The high I felt when the Broncos, this team whom I don't know any of these guys, you know, they were playing miles away from where I was. None of them know me. I'm not related to any of these guys, I don't pay their salaries, we're not friends, but I'm like, I'm like so invested in this team. And that's I'm not here to critique sports fandom. I'm just saying it was kind of weird how elated I got. And then when they lost, I was so devastated, I ruined my night. And I was driving home, like, why am I so upset about this game and this team? And look, again, I think fandom and loyalty is great, but I was like personally, I was struck by the fact that I was so overwhelmed up and down, emotional. Like, what is my problem? And I'll tell you, I what I noticed in that moment was I'm this is not healthy for me. And it was that moment where like it began to sort of wane a bit. Now I'm still a I still love the Broncos, I cheer for them, but it took me probably 20 more years to like just begin to let go of this unhealthy attachment I had to this team that doesn't know me from anybody, and vice versa. And I still cheer for them, I love it, but like my point is that I I noticed how bizarre this thing, how bizarrely this thing affected me.
Okay, so I heard another story by Josh Dumel. He's a he's a famous actor, and he was on this podcast talking about um his relationship with alcohol. And he was like, This is what he said. I think Josh Dumel's like 15 now. He goes, I've noticed that I have this unhealthy attachment to alcohol. He goes, because I'd come home, you know, from work or whatever, and I like three o'clock in the afternoon, I'd have I'd have a vodka and Red Bull. And I was like, dang, bro, at three in the afternoon. He's then I'd have one more at five o'clock, and I'd have one more eight o'clock. He had like four or five of these every night. I was like, one, how do you have a Red Bull that late at night and not be jacked up the next day? But also he's like, he's I I had all these uh these vodka Red Bulls every day. And he's like, and I thought to myself, after 50 years, I'm like, this is not a healthy attachment to this drink. And so he began to dial it back and he goes, now I'm down, I might have one or two a night. I'm like, that still seems like a lot of vodka Red Bull. But my point is, um, he noticed after all these years that he's got this unhealthy attachment to vodka and Red Bulls. Now, listen, is being a fan of a sports team good or bad innately? I I don't think so. I don't know. It's not it's not like it's anything. It's that's like asking, are clouds good or bad? Uh is having a drink after work a good or bad thing innately? I I don't know. I'm not really I don't know. I do know though that both of those things can get out of whack quickly.
And so here's what I think. I I want to invite you just to take stock and notice in your life, I don't know, today, tomorrow, in the weeks, and maybe especially during Advent, what are the things in your life that just seem a bit out of whack? Is there a way for you to open up your eyes a bit wider during Advent and just to be to note, like just like I don't know, have a curiosity about your life. So like if you were to step back and just be curious about your own life, and I would say about your reactions to things. So like I always tell one of my one of my kids, I'm like, hey, you had like a level eight reaction there to a level five infraction. Those are, or even like a level nine reaction to like a level one infraction, or like somebody cuts you off in traffic on accident and you're freaking out, like screaming and yelling and swearing and want to punch him. Like, that's a level nine reaction to maybe like a level three infraction. Notice those moments. Be curious about like why did I react that way? Be curious about it. So, one, about your reactions. Number two, any attachments that you have, like, hey, I've got to do this one thing. I have to have this drink, I have to um watch this TV show, I have to have my phone on me, these unhealthy or out of whack, out of balance attachments. Note, be curious about like, hey, what why do I have this inclination or this almost like dependency on X, Y, or Z? And I think those are things that are really would be good to be curious about. So during Advent, may you have your eyes open, may you be awake and may you explore the things in your life that are like maybe out of whack or out of balance or just off a tiny bit. May you have honesty enough to like examine them, like, hey, why do I respond that way? Or why do I have this desire to have this thing in my life, this maybe unhealthy or out of balance attachment? And may you know that Jesus said, I've come to give life and life to the full. And so may you experience life this Advent season. All right, love you guys. Peace.
Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 8 30, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering. Or you can check us out online at clcelkriver.org. Peace.
