(I started writing this post a while back, but just finished it… Originally authored on 8/27/2006)
I suppose you could call this particular post a confessional of sorts. You see, this morning I was responsible for the Pastoral Prayer at our church. No big deal, right? After all, I pray to my Creator every day. I’ve prayed for groups before. I’ve prayed aloud before. In this case I was praying in front of and for a church I care a great deal about and of which I am called to be a part. So what’s the big deal anyway? Well, this is different. This is the Pastoral Prayer. In case you haven’t heard, there’s a special class at seminary where they teach you the correct way to prepare and deliver a pastoral prayer. They teach the class only on odd numbered years, in a room panelled in the wood of a fig tree, and the class is restricted to third year students. It’s kinda like a Harry Potter thing. Actually, not really. But just the same, this thing had me severely freaked out. Even though there is no super-secret methodology for how to do this, you wouldn’t know it from hearing and seeing how it is done in most places. For experienced clerics, these can last long enough to transport you from attentive listener to accidental daydreamer to oh-my-gosh-I-just-nodded-off land. Furthermore, many pastors make the pastoral sound like something just shy of a doctoral thesis. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against pastoral prayers per se, I just found the whole idea intimidating. This is how bad it is: I am on the schedule to preach the sermon Labor Day weekend, and I don’t find that NEARLY as scary. After all, people will mark down an unusual delivery of a sermon to “personal style”, but a badly performed pastoral prayer? That’s the sign of an imposter.
September 6, 2006
Freaked Out About Prayer
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words (if you can get your hands on one)
I would love to share a picture of my most recent trail ride with my readers, but unfortunately, my friend with the camera (Wally) hasn’t bothered to email any to me yet. If I had such a picture, however, you would find one old dude, loosing his hair and hiding his Buddha belly under a bike jersey, standing beside a group of 3 college guys and one “there weren’t any classes I liked this semester” guy. Everyone but the fat older guy has doffed their shirts, so as to display their manliness to all in the area. Everyone (including baldy) is drenched in the layer of sweat that only 3+ hours of delicious offroad goodness can bring. Off course, when you combine trails and sweat, you also get a nice layer of adhered dirt on the surface of our intrepid band of adventurers.
As you might expect, there are a few things this picture that I don’t have won’t tell you. It won’t disclose the fact that two of the five bikes that are being held proudly in the photo no longer function. Further, you can’t tell from the picture that among the ailments these bikes suffered over the course of the ride included (but are not limited to):
What the picture you don’t see also won’t tell you is that the 5 people represent 5 different universities, but chose to spend this holiday morning together having a heck of a good time beating the trails. You can’t see that the three youngest ones were only on their second real trail ride, and did a great job of it considering the limitations equipment created. We only covered about 9.5 miles, but that means there is still more untouched trail to ride the next time we hit Dausett.
Shout outs to Walter, Andy, Michael, and Will for an awesome ride. Get those bikes fixed so we can do it again. I found us a new trail to explore in Columbus. Are you ready?
