Opening my big mouth
So I go to the sort of church where things are pretty free flowing. There’s a basic structure, but no liturgy. When we are doing the singing bit, after the talking bit in the middle, we’re encouraged to speak out if we feel inspired. Some people bring words of wisdom, some inspired pictures or illustrations. I like to pray out loud. If the audience/congregation like what you’ve said you get a hearty amen, or at least a few ‘yes Lord’s and some ‘mmmmm’ing. If there are unconvinced you get a short embarrassed silence.
If you know the sort of worship meeting I mean I’m sure this will be familar to you. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you really should come along sometime – it’s better than it sounds!
Anyway, two weeks ago I pushed the boat out for me and spoke during the worship time how I though that dodgy footbridge that was built in London a few years ago was a good metaphor for how we can try to take steps in our Christian faith that seem to go wrong, and this puts us off growing spiritually in the future. Or at least that’s what I meant/tried to say. It was really convincing in my head before I opened my mouth.
Last week, not to be put off, I read out loud the scripture where Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life” and then prayed about how amazing it was to live in the good of never having to worry about death. I am still mostly convinced it made sense after what the preacher had said, but it pretty much went down like a lead balloon with the congregation. Luckily the musicians started another song straight away and no one seemed to worry.
The bizarre thing is that after both these less than stellar contributions someone came up to me and thanked me for blessing them with what had said.
So I want to thank those two people for teaching me to not worry too much about how I feel after I’ve opened my mouth. I try to be wise and thoughtful with the contributions I make, and I don’t want to take it lightly if I make mistakes. But I guess I’m not always the best judge with these things. There is sometimes I great calling to try, and then leave the results to God.
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