The day I almost quit preaching

I know it has been quite a while since I have blogged, but I have decided to get back into it.

This is the true story of the day I almost quit preaching.  I know it was on a Wednesday afternoon in July, but I can't tell you what year.  I think it was 2007, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, I had been to South Georgia Medical Center to visit one of our members.  This Christian lady was both, through and through: a Christian and quite a lady.  As a matter of fact, I don't think she ever knew this side of eternity just how much she meant to me.  I had spent about 2 hours that day in her hospital room just talking to her.  Even though she was in the hospital and was suffering from a variety of ailments, I left her room so encouraged.  We hadn't talked about anything special. She had not said or done anything special.  She was just being herself: a Christian lady.

As I left the hospital and was walking through the parking lot I was overwhelmed emotionally.  There I was, "the preacher."  I was supposed to be doing the encouraging, yet I was the one leaving encouraged and consoled.  I finally decided that the emotion I was experiencing was guilt.  The reason for the guilt was not that I had done anything wrong, quite the contrary.  All that I had done as "the preacher" was what I could have-would have-SHOULD have done as a Christian.  Why should I, "the preacher," be special, feel special, or be viewed any differently from any other Christian?  Half the members at Airport made (and make) hospital visits, send cards, bring food, and do any number of little things that no one ever sees.  Just who did I think I was?  I walked away that day with the realization that I did not have to be "the preacher" because I was not doing anything that I would not have been doing otherwise.

That day helped to emphasize to me that being a Christian is as much or more about the little things we do.  Being a Christian isn't about recognition, but it is about being recognized.  A true Christian is going to act like one just as much on Monday as they do on Sunday.  A true Christian is going to act like one whether they are the one in the hospital bed or they are the one sitting in the chair by the bed.  A true Christian isn't going to have to tell anyone with their mouth, because their actions are going to show it.

Well, obviously I didn't quit preaching.  But in this age of budgets, resumes, and committee meetings, I have come to change my "job description," at least in my mind.  I am not "the preacher," just honored to try to be a full-time Christian who happens to stand in the pulpit.