You know, I really wish I would blog more. I really, really do. And I'm pretty sure this should be my last blog to whine. Pretty sure.
So much is going on. I went to "preacher camp" as a friend so lovingly put it. Really, it was a lay speaker event at Mt Wesley in Kerrville. And I had a blast. Sure, I was the youngest person there, but that won't ever stop me from having fun! I learned about writing a sermon, duh, that was the whole point of the weekend. I heard many awesome sermons, some people brought sermons to the event knowing they were good. Others wrote on Saturday night and delivered Sunday morning. I was one of those people.
I spent an hour on it. One hour. That's all. So of course I was a nervous frenzy Sunday morning, and immediately started trying to talk myself out of getting up in front of a group of lay speakers, who had already delivered some impressive sermons. I was not able to get off the hook that easily.
First, my dorm mates started on me. All three of them had convinced me when I left for breakfast that I should go for it. Their main persuasion was, "What better chance do you get to deliver your first sermon other than giving it to a group who want to help you grow." Good point. But I still wasn't 100% convinced.
I get into the dinning hall and before I grab a tray someone comes up to me, someone who hasn't said a word to me the whole weekend, and he says, "So are you going first this morning?" What? Then I sit down with the group of Pflugerville lay speakers I had been eating with all weekend, "I can't wait to hear you preach this morning Michelle." I look at Gary, from my church, "Thanks, Gary. No pressure right?" He had planted the idea in my head Saturday before we ended class to write something or at least try.
So I did it. I gave my message. It was a testimonial sermon, based around my story, so it wasn't hard to tell. I didn't have to write it out, like everyone else did. I just had my bullet points. And now this Sunday, I get to give my message again at a youth fellowship. It's going to be strange going to a new church to "preach," but it's a good strange, an exciting strange. It's the best kind of strange you can happen upon. And hopefully I get to feel this strange again, and again, and again.....
