Whew!
This morning, the nightmare I have occasionally over the years actually came true. Every once in a while, I think every pastor has that recurring bad dream of waking up late and finding oneself in the pulpit with no sermon. That was me today!
I wish I could blame it on Daylight Savings Time, but I did remember to turn my clock ahead. I set the time for my usual Sunday morning wake up too. But I forgot to check to see if I actually turned the alarm on.
Somehow this morning I miraculously woke up at 7:05 am. My waking words were not entirely appropriate for a Sunday morning, although I did thank God for waking me before the 8:00 service anyway. I usually make it out the door by 7:10 on a typical Sunday. Today it was 7:15. Poor Max couldn't figure out what was going on as I grabbed any nearby clothes to wear, splashed cold water on my face, brushed my teeth and got ready to head out the door. He cried for attention and some time on my lap, but I had to beg for his understanding on my way out. However, I did take the time to fill his dishes, so I wasn't a totally neglectful mother.
Needless to say, there was also no time to boot up the computer to print out a sermon for this morning, so I had to rely on my memory of what I was preparing for today. I rarely print out a sermon before Sunday morning because it almost always needs at least a little tweaking in the early morning hours after some overnight processing. I prayed desperately for the Spirit to intervene on the drive to church, and somehow it worked. Granted there were some differences in my sermon from 8:00 to the 10:30 service - definitely for the better, I would say. But the basic concept I was working with made it through in spite of my lack of decent waking and preparation time. If I must say so myself, it went pretty well! And there was a higher than usual number of compliments this week too. I could say I should let the Spirit take me every week, but man, I don't want to go through this again any time soon.
What I will say is, today was a good reminder that my preaching is definitely Spirit driven and not any reflection at all on my own ability! However, I would prefer a more subtle reminder next time.
I wish I could blame it on Daylight Savings Time, but I did remember to turn my clock ahead. I set the time for my usual Sunday morning wake up too. But I forgot to check to see if I actually turned the alarm on.
Somehow this morning I miraculously woke up at 7:05 am. My waking words were not entirely appropriate for a Sunday morning, although I did thank God for waking me before the 8:00 service anyway. I usually make it out the door by 7:10 on a typical Sunday. Today it was 7:15. Poor Max couldn't figure out what was going on as I grabbed any nearby clothes to wear, splashed cold water on my face, brushed my teeth and got ready to head out the door. He cried for attention and some time on my lap, but I had to beg for his understanding on my way out. However, I did take the time to fill his dishes, so I wasn't a totally neglectful mother.
Needless to say, there was also no time to boot up the computer to print out a sermon for this morning, so I had to rely on my memory of what I was preparing for today. I rarely print out a sermon before Sunday morning because it almost always needs at least a little tweaking in the early morning hours after some overnight processing. I prayed desperately for the Spirit to intervene on the drive to church, and somehow it worked. Granted there were some differences in my sermon from 8:00 to the 10:30 service - definitely for the better, I would say. But the basic concept I was working with made it through in spite of my lack of decent waking and preparation time. If I must say so myself, it went pretty well! And there was a higher than usual number of compliments this week too. I could say I should let the Spirit take me every week, but man, I don't want to go through this again any time soon.
What I will say is, today was a good reminder that my preaching is definitely Spirit driven and not any reflection at all on my own ability! However, I would prefer a more subtle reminder next time.
posted by Kris at 3/09/2008 03:14:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home