Thursday, February 28, 2013

That one time I preached in class...


For my practicum class this semester, all of the students are supposed to prepare a message to preach to the class.  (Queue terrifying horror movie screech.) not only do I hate talking with a microphone, but I’ve never preached a message before, and have never really considered myself to be a preacher.  Ever.  Well, on February 5th, I did it.  (I know, I’m shocked too.)

It’s kinda funny to think about how many things the Lord orchestrated to make sure it happened too.  He reminded me in the shower that morning, that I needed to type it up.  In the prayer room, I rewrote my outline and found specific verses o use.  Then Before class I had an opportunity to type it in the library, and I just so happened to have money in my wallet to pay for printing because He delivered to me a customer who wanted to open an account with my store.  In class there was a long pause after the first guy went, and like I usually do, I almost piped up just to fill the silence.  Just before I could stand up to take the stand, another guy jumped up.  My heart was burning inside of me, and I thought my ribs were going to literally explode out of me the whole time he was talking.  He made a great segue, in my mind, to my talk as well, so when Corey asked who was next, I boldly raised my hand.   The talk I gave prompted the girl who went after me.  It’s “funny” because she knew before hand that Corey was going to pick her, but she didn’t know what to talk about until I was speaking.  The Lord orchestrated everything together.

Adam talked about Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus, that this is the one thing that we should pursue above everything else, and it will not be taken away.  Nathan talked about rejecting the lies of the enemy, and agreeing with the truth of God’s word.  I talked about our hope in the resurrection and Caitlyn talked about our hope and need for Jesus to come back.  It was cool to see the progression, not that we had the same message, but like a continuous thought.

When I was talking I felt like it was totally weak, “rough and ugly”.  I felt like all of my words were landing just beyond the podium like a led balloon.  But my classmates and teachers were really encouraging!  The next morning several people commented that I did well, and one guy even said that he wasn’t in class that day, but that others had told him about it!  People were talking about it? What?  I’m re-awed that the Lord can sue weak and broken vessels for His work and to minister to His people.  Even me!

Since that day I feel like this hope in the resurrection has been highlighted everywhere; songs in the prayer room, talks given, all over the place.  The next morning in the prayer room, there was a sheet of paper in the chair next to me.  I thought it belonged to the guy sitting in the next chair over, but he left, and left the paper too.  I turned it over and it’s one of the prayer requests asking us to pray for two little girls who are grieving the loss of their father some time before.  What are the odds of that?  That it would be directly related to the same message that I had given the day before?  It feels like an extra exclamation point for heaven that this is a message I’ll be carrying for a while.

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