Your Day

I left the building frustrated. To be honest, I could have been at the point of tears. It wasn’t anybody or anything done to me. It was the sermon. I preached part two of a sermon I had begun the week before. That week the lesson had really affected a lot of people, I was riding high. The week that followed I studied harder, spend more time preparing, put together a handout/outline, had a good powerpoint presentation, worked the LIST, and felt good. But the sermon fell flat. It just wasn’t there. I felt it early and it didn’t go away. Either I had too much material and rushed or I didn’t think I explained the text well, or maybe it was just the really cold weather or the time of year. Regardless, it was. It is Sunday’s like those that in my younger days I would have thought, I’m not cut out for this. Now, I just chalk it up to the reality that we all have bad days, and the I am still learning, and that if i do this 100 years I will still be figuring this out. I take comfort in the knowledge that the best preachers I know have days like that too. I take greater comfort in that, while I should always strive to do my very best, God doesn’t require me to be good, just faithful, true, loving and a man striving for high integrity. When we write these I often wonder what kind of day the guys reading it have had. I feel certain some of you had a difficult day brought on by various reasons. Some of you no doubt had a day that made you question or want to quit. In a group of this size some of you either resigned or were asked to leave. Some of you or your family are dealing with health issues that are distracting or threatening. Some of you had very bad days. And some of you had really good days and reasons to soar. I want to remind you, God’s love is for you too. He calls you to faith and faithfulness not to perfection and He certainly understands and cares in your difficult moments. We serve a good God. Don’t quit.