SUB-TITLE: Lessons Learned Making Sunday Morning Announcements
Apparently you’re not supposed to end a sentence with “So…”
This little bit of information would have been useful had I been able to actually recall it at the time. I do slightly better with the written word, maybe it’s because I don’t have hundreds of pairs of eyes gazing on me. Or maybe I should have planned out what I said that day a little better. Maybe you’ve experienced this yourself, not in a large room full of people but an occasion when someone has said something to you so unexpected that you literally had no words to reply with or you’ve been speaking and everything you had to say suddenly cannot be recalled by your brain. Possibly someone has said something to you so wrong it was the equivalent of beating a unicorn to death with a bag of rainbows. What do you say when someone has just told you something so heart wrenching or shocking that you’re completely speechless. Do you whip out a Christian cliché like, “I’ll be praying for you” or “God has a better plan”? Or do you do what I did when I make announcements and say “So…” and let the room fill with an awkward silence and then walk away?
Depending on what’s said or who is speaking it can be hard to know what to say or do. It’s important to remember in those times that there are no words… that Christ died for that person too. And in those times that life isn’t all glitter and rainbows… God is sovereign above all. There will be times when you run out of words, when you don’t know what to say, when you say the completely wrong thing or even when there is nothing to say at all and that’s okay, God is still sovereign above all and His grace is sufficient.
My grandma had a saying “you can either laugh about it or cry about it but you can’t always change it.” Grandma had a lot of other corny sayings too, but that one has always stuck with me because of its truth. How you react under pressure says a lot about the content of your character. And honestly there will be times when we totally blow it, we’re all sinners in need of God’s grace and because of Christ’s death on the cross we can have that grace. So in those times that you run out of things to say or there is nothing to say or even when someone has said something wrong to you or that you didn’t want to hear or weren’t ready to hear… remember that God is sovereign above all, it’s all in His hands and we can trust in His Grace.
I will love You, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalms 18:1-2
Writers Block 