It’s been too long since my last blog. A few days can get away from you so quickly. It’s easy to get lost in the myriad of activities and tasks that beckon for our constant attention.
Rather than recounting all the events of the last seven days I will focus on a couple of events of this past weekend. Penny was in town. She arrived late Friday night. I was on Good News TV while she was on the road. I co-hosted a program titled Praying for the Sabbath, a one hour program that consists of two people taking prayer requests from viewers while on the air. The challenging part is to keep a coherent conversation going between requests.
There is always the fear that no one will call, which requires a much higher level of engagement between co-hosts. Pastor Jay, pastor of the Thunderbird Academy church, was the consummate professional host. He is the host most every Friday. I, on the other hand, was a novice thrown into the fray without as much as a dab of make-up or training. There was no obvious meltdown. It was a very pleasant experience. I have no idea whether I will ever be asked to return for an encore.
Saturday was a busy day. I had been asked to be the main speaker for the first Generation Joven Youth Rally for Adventist youth from all over Arizona (yes, those are two different languages in one slogan). The morning sermon was quite nondescript. 500 or so young people were seated in a high school auditorium. There was lots of music and a variety of attempts to engage the multitude. I got up to preach at about 11:50 a.m. I did not feel the sermon went well at all. I felt disjointed and off sequence. I am glad that the success or failure of a particular sermon is not dependent on my perfect or less than adequate delivery.
I sense the afternoon sermon came across much more smoothly. Of course it consisted of all of five minutes—a generous five minutes. My words came at the end of a two and a half hour marathon of music, dialogue, and drama, followed by an appeal following the drama. That was prior to my being presented to the 200 or so young people anticipating a full-fledged sermon. I tried to think what a typical young person would be feeling at that particular moment. In spite of cameras set up to record the sermon at the end of the program and a certain self-imposed expectation I simply sang an a capella Spanish version of Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, spoke for three minutes—tops, and then closed with prayer.
I got many compliments on my sermon. I would not be surprised if it might be ranked by the youth in attendance as one of the best sermons they had ever heard, if for no other reason than that it was only five minutes long. I hope the message landed before they realized it was over. Such is preaching. I am glad to be part of whatever God does.
Sunday was spent painting three homes on the campus of Thunderbird Academy, with a short break for breakfast/brunch with Penny, before she left for Riverside a little after 12 o’clock noon. I did not cheat myself out a full weekend. Now, if I can only survive the week!
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