Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Pastor (11/30/06)
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TITLE: First sermon of Sue van Rooyen | Previous Challenge Entry
By Louise Grobler
12/06/06 -
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Oh God! Why have you chosen me for this job? Sometimes I just don’t get it.
My thoughts are interrupted when Jane asks: “Are you ready to go in?
Ready? I thought loudly. Can one ever be ready for something like this? Four years of studies, four years of preparation; there was no lesson on being “ready”…
I am as nervous as a child on its first day at school.
Now the moment has arrived. I am on the brink of preaching my first sermon and being ordained as the new youth-pastor?
A pastor? Who in their right mind becomes a pastor? The answer came almost simultaneously with my question. “One who is called by Me.” I heard a still small voice inside of me saying.
But Lord I am not ready! I don’t even remember the title of my sermon. My knees are shaking, and I am sure my stomach has just turned itself upside down.
“2 Corinthians 12:9” I heard that familiar voice say to me again.
“2 Corinthians 12: 9?”
Yes, read 2 Corinthians 12:9.
I open up my bible, with my index finger I search through the scriptures.
As I read the scripture, I feel the boldness begin to flow back into my body.
“My grace is all you need, for my power is perfected in weakness.”
As I read it the second time, I give a deep and peaceful sigh, knowing that
God is with me.
Thank You God, I pray silently. Thank you, that I can depend on your grace to carry me through every day. Your grace gives me the ability to do things I could not do on my own before. Through your grace I am more than I could ever hope to be.
My thoughts are once again interrupted by Jane asking me a second time:
“Are you ready to go in Sue?” And with that she places her hand under my
elbow, and pulls me gently towards the door.
“We can go in” I replied to her.
Her hand turns the door knob.
I hear someone announcing: “Please welcome pastor Sue van Rooyen!”
When the door opens, I heard the sound of people standing up, and applauding.
As I walked through the door, I knew that this was the beginning of a new chapter in the book of life of Pastor Sue van Rooyen.
With shoulders pulled back I walk to the pulpit and place my bible on it.
Good morning saints. You may sit down, I hear myself say with a confident voice.
I almost sounded like Pastor Green, I thought to myself as I smiled at the sea of young faces in the room.
I look down at the piece of paper I scribbled my sermon on. I read the title of the sermon. “Creation and its concepts.”
I lift up my head, my eyes locking with about fifty pairs of hungry eyes, staring at me.
Today I want to talk to you about… about… Then I hear that familiar voice completing my sentence. “…The grace of God.”
And I hear myself repeating those words: “The grace of God...”
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I could feel the nervousness of the narrator--great descriptions of this, especially the reference to her stomach turning upside down! The use of present tense was also very effective in conveying the tensionn of the present moment.
I noticed a slip into past tense in a couple of paragraphs. It would be good to keep the whole narrative in the same tense-and in this case, the present tense works beautifully!