Serve by Design

After preaching recently, I received some kudos from close friends within our church family. While I appreciate these kind remarks, I always remember the saying, “You’re only as good as your last sermon!” Our fulltime pastors know well the weekly stress of sermon preparation. No sooner do you close the week’s message out with a benediction than it is time to begin the process all over again! I can remember many Sunday afternoons when my after-lunch time was spent at the computer with Bible in hand typing out the next week’s sermon outline! Among this most recent feedback, I was surprised by one comment. This sweet lady remarked, “Pastor, I appreciated your message last Sunday. And I like your accent, too! ” I wasn’t completely sure what accent she was referring to, but I ventured a guess with this reply, “You mean, as in Texas?!” And she nodded and responded, “Yes!” I then commented, “Well, you’re not the first to note that subtlety. I did spend fifteen years in Texas, and it did leave...

Our beautiful, aware, and precocious fourth-grade granddaughter, Eloise, can be quite direct at times. The other day on the ride home, during an afterschool conversation in the car with her dad, she let loose a volley of words that our son wasn’t expecting. He had just told her that he was going to call Poppi because he (Moi!) had a window of time to visit before an out-of-town meeting that night. It was the word “meeting” that unsettled her and triggered the comment, “I have never once heard him mention the word meeting!”😲  Image Credit: www.pexels.com Matt surmised that this sounded a lot like what she often hears from both of her parents who work remotely from home much of the time. They will often comment to Eloise and her siblings, “You’re going to have to entertain yourself for a little while this afternoon. I have a meeting for about an hour, and I cannot be disturbed!”   Now, she is hearing for the first time that her beloved Poppi is also a “meetings-type person!” An...