African Exodus. Live the Experience.
This past weekend I was asked to preach at a congregation I used to attend a decade ago. It was refreshing to be invited back.
I’d planned a sermon that pieced together some instances of a Hebrew phrase commonly rendered “Here I am.”
But as I sat during the preceding presentations, I listened to each speaker refer to chapter and verse of the Bible motivating congregants to take up the baton and go on the year-end missionary trip.
I realised there was a need for an experiential account. So I gave a 5-minute synopsis of my planned sermon, ditched it, and publicly reminisced about nearly dying, teaching orphans, and touching souls in bygone years.
Too often, we want to do things because they are good, right, appropriate, or beneficial to someone. Sometimes, maybe even most times, we need to do something for the experience. Not to fill a resume, but to enrich the passage of time that we call life.
What matters most
When I think back, it’s not the messages I’ve shared that have mattered the most. It’s the feeling of my nose on the coldest winter morning when we needed to trek to a school a few kilometres away. That happened a decade ago and I can still remember the awkward laughs in that street when we froze our balls off! I couldn’t feel my toes.
When I look back at a group picture we took I remember each person for how they made me feel, not the conversations we had. It takes a lot to get me to admit that.
So, perhaps we ought to occasionally stop trying to give off the right impression; most of what we say is not going to be remembered anyway.
What is your message?
Don’t always be concerned with teaching. Let your audience develop their own messages from the material of your life. Let people experience the theme of your life, the warmth of your personality, and the strength of your character. The best source of creativity is a life well-lived.
Preach always; use words when necessary.
