Game Day Sunday

Sundays are very interesting days for pastors, to say the least. We are filled with nerves, anticipation, challenges, fear, joy, and a thousand other emotions that cannot even be explained. Between 6:00 and 10:45 a.m. my mind races about a thousand miles an hour over everything that is going to happen that morning. Will the music be just right? Will the coffee, be ready? Will the computer work correctly? Am I sure I want to use that illustration? Why is my microphone cord so tangled up inside my shirt?

While Sunday mornings are restful and have a slower pace than most mornings for most people, for pastors Sunday is game day. Beginning on Monday the week is filled with planning, studying, preparing, writing, re-writing and stressing out over Sunday. Usually by the time pastors get home on Sundays all we want to do is sleep.

The awesome part of Sunday for pastors is hearing how God works through us to touch the lives of others. On Monday I almost always have cards, e-mails or phone messages from someone telling me how Sunday was special. I hear about how the passage of scripture used was exactly what they needed to deal with life at this moment. I hear how people make decisions that they want to give control of their life over to Jesus.

That is the pay off for Sunday. Sunday is a day where the divine meets the human and humanity is changed. In some small way I get to be a part of that. Pastors, worship leaders, children’s workers and a number of other people get to be a part of seeing God shape humanity. And at the end of the day, when all is said and done, game day has produced a victory because Jesus Christ was lifted up.