Living the Faith, Part I

This week I'm going to share a sermon with you that I delivered at Milton United Methodist Church.  

I’m going to start this morning by telling you a story that will make you cringe – it makes me cringe – but it has been running through my mind as I prepared for this sermon. It’s a story about how my Monday started this week.

 Do you have mental lists? Do you look at your day and plan in your mind what you need to do that day? Or maybe the coming week? I have mental lists – until I create paper lists – I like lists. I like plans – at least where work is concerned.

On Monday I had a plan for the day in my mind. I had been out of the office for the last four days of the previous week, so I had some work I wanted to catch up on. Jeff and I were going to visit a church that evening, so I wanted to prepare for that, and we had another presentation during the week that I needed to complete plans for. I had thoughts about this sermon that I wanted to solidify – and my list goes on. I was about to walk out the front door of our house and jump into the car when I realized I had forgotten something upstairs, so I went to retrieve it. Halfway down the stairs, something happened. Even though I remember every second of what happened next, I’m not sure exactly what started it. I either caught the heel of my shoe in the cuff of my slacks, or I misplaced my foot, but whatever it was, I found I wasn’t standing on anything. You know those moments when you are starting to fall, and you catch yourself? I tried that, but it didn’t work. Instead, I fell down the stairs. I didn’t roll; I flew. I remember flying through the air, and landing at the bottom – on my face. The only reason I’m standing here smiling at you today is that two very kind and compassionate dentists worked me into their schedules on Monday morning to fix my two broken teeth.