Practice what you preach.

I often look back and think, If I had a pound for everytime somebody said that as a minister I only worked one day a week, I would be a very rich man. The reality of the ministry was that Sunday was probably the easiest day of the working week.

All the other days of the week were taken up with prison chaplaincies and hospital chaplaincies then, of course, there were the schools I visited.  The visitation of parishioners and the meetings all took time.  Between all of those went on the thinking about the sermons that had to be prepared for the Sunday. Come the Sunday all that was left was the delivering of those sermons. Having a morning service in two places of worship and an evening one at one or other and the service at the hospital and the prison meant that there was not much time in between. But it was all about delivery. The delivery of the thoughts gathered and worked on during the week. They had to be adapted for the different places of worship but that was just experience. 

Was I a reasonable preacher? Who knows. But over the years I have wondered if I was and of course asked the question just what is an effective preacher?

I remember my son once asked me what was the highest number I had ever counted to? I told him I was not sure. He told me he had reached 3546 or some such number. I asked him why he had stopped there? he said, "Because at that point you said Amen."  Now guess how effective he thought I was?

What I always hoped I did not preach were "longhorn sermons," a point here, a point there, and a lot of bull in between.

I had a friend who told me he  never prepared during the week, and on Sunday morning he'd sit at the communion table while the church was singing the hymns desperately praying, "Lord, give your message, Lord give me your message." 

He told me that one Sunday, while desperately praying for God's message, he heard a voice say, "Sandy, here's my message. You're lazy!"

I cannot recall hearing anything similar. 

Sometimes I felt like circus knife throwers. The knife thrower stood his assistant, usually a lovely lady against a wall and then threw knives at her. 

They'd hit above her head, close by her ear, under her armpit, and between her fingers. They could throw within a hair's breadth and never strike. Sometimes my words were much the same going everywhere but never hitting the mark.

My worry was always that I bored the listeners and they were exhausted before I had exhausted my topic. So I often began my sermon with the words, My job is to talk to you. Your job is to listen. If you quit before me, I would be grateful if you let me know.

 A man went to visit the local doctor about his snoring. The doctor asked him, "Is it worrying you because it is disturbing your wife?"  The man replied, "MY wife, no it is disturbing the whole congregation."

So you can see I have given much thought to the years when I was a preacher. Were my sermons worthy of being preached or should they all have been filed in the out tray marked rubbish?

The bottom line though is valid for us all. We should never unsay with our lives what we say with our lips. All the good words in the world are meaningless if the actions of a person say something else. 

Words come fairly easily but actions take more thought and consideration. My preaching days are over. I just hope that my actions today measure up to the words of yesteryear.

Have a good day and be careful what you say you might have to practice it.