My Consolation Prize

Consolation prizes are worth a lot.

Today was not a good day at church. How strange that last Sunday was so completely awesome, and this Sunday was (in my mind) a dud. I'm sure there were a lot of people who were blessed by something or other today, but to me, it wasn't all that great.

Beth was sick today. Usually, she leads the worship service--doing announcement and generally emceeing the worship. In the early service, I had to do that. I used to do that at all the other churches I've served, but now that she does it, I'm out of practice.

I felt that my sermon today completely missed the mark. At least I know my church is full of honest people, because not a single person gave the obligatory "Good sermon, preacher" along with their handshake after church. They would've been lying if they had said it.

In addition to the two dud sermons I preached, I felt that the two Bible classes I taught were lackluster.

The one thing that brightened my day was a little gesture from a church member who has taken it upon herself to be an encouragement to me, and to other pastors in the area. This person has twice now given goody bags to the pastors who meet at Antioch each Wednesday for breakfast. She does this, just to brighten our days. Today, my consolation prize was this stainless steel Virginia travel mug. She had no idea that I was short on travel mugs, or that I prefer the stainless ones. Even more, she had no idea that I needed encouragement this evening.

So, I don't know if she'll ever read this or not, but thank you to the one who gave me this consolation prize. You have no idea how much your simple gesture meant.

And to the rest of you who are not members of my church, I ask this question: Does your pastor need consolation? Does your pastor need encouragement? What can you do to support your pastor today?