Part 2: Never Say Never . . .

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding. 

In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.

~Proverbs 3: 5-6 

(Continued from Part 1)  I don't know why when my pastor asked me to at least keep the door open to pastoral ministry, I didn't tell him at that point why I didn't think that was an option for me.  That I had this horrible fear of public speaking that I'd dealt with my entire life.  That's what I should have done, but that's not what I did. What I did was I nodded politely, and said I would.   

Of course, that mistake would come back to haunt me a very short time later.  My pastor planned to go on a trip and he asked me to preach for him on a Sunday morning.  And I was stuck.  I couldn't say no, because I'd told him I'd keep the door to pastoral ministry open. And an important part of pastoral ministry is preaching.  So I was going to have to preach.  At least once.  Because I'd said I'd keep that door open.  

So I agreed to preach that Sunday morning, and I went to work on an idea I had for a sermon.  I had a couple weeks to work on it.  I'm a pretty good writer, and the message I came up with I was really pleased with.  It was better than anything I'd done in my preaching class.  It had great application.  I'd worked in some humor and a couple excellent illustrations.  I had a great deal of faith in the message, I just had little faith I'd be able to spit it out in a coherent manner.

And before I knew it, that Sunday arrived.  It was in April of 2021, and we were all just getting back to church again and getting comfortable being around each other again.  When I pulled into the parking lot at the church that Sunday, my gut sank--there were more cars at the church than I'd seen there since the pandemic had started.  I'd hoped there wouldn't be too many people there to see me flop.

I think there were two things going on that Sunday that lead to the attendance we had.  I think my church family was ready to get life back to normal again after the pandemic.  And the second thing I think was going on is that the congregation was genuinely curious whether I could preach or not.  And of course on top of a good church turnout, my family showed up, a couple friends from work, and my wife's family was there, too.    

I was sitting right in the front pew, next to my old friend John.  It was just like every other time I'd had to speak in public.  I'd been nervous for days.  I hadn't slept that night.  I was sweating.  My hands were shaky.  My friend John must have thought I looked ill, because he leaned over at one point during the beginning of the service and asked if I was okay.  I was not!  

I kept looking at my watch, telling myself this would all be over in less than an hour.  And then I could walk through that door out into the sunshine, and I'd never have to preach again.  And I was pretty certain that after the first time, I'd never be asked again.  

But then the most remarkable thing happened . . . and it changed everything.  

I'll tell you all about it, in Part 3. You can read all the parts in this series by clicking on this link:  Never Say Never Series

~Todd E. Creason