Today, I’m sitting at my office desk, taking a break. I started off the day approving some advertizing, visiting another pastor as we deal with pastoral “things” in Kindersley. Then I arrived at the church as Dan Driedger set up for personal interviews on finances (see my previous entry on our weekend financial seminars). Now, I’ve just cleaned up some administration and it’s already 11:25 in the morning.
This 15 minute break is just a time to sit down and reflect. I’ve been preaching full-time at Kindersley for the last year and a bit. Sunday I heard two or three people mention things that they remember from sermons I have preached. This is humbling — of course, every once in a while I get those who disagree with me which is humbling in a different way!!
My wife says I look at things in different ways and my hope is that I can portray that in such a way that people will understand. I do not want to be heretical — or seen to be heretical because people don’t understand what I am saying. My prayer is often — “God, give me words so others will understand what I think I see clearly.”
I remember sitting at my brother’s bed a few months before he died from cancer. I made a remark that I thought was fairly clear. Even at that point my brother didn’t understand what I was saying. His comment was that I had made comments most of my life that people didn’t understand even though I understood them! That started me on a renewed emphasis to say what I mean in such a way that others will know what I mean –do you know what I mean??