Missing Sermon Page

 

I printed Sunday’s sermon on Saturday. 

While printing, the printer ran out of paper. 

I replaced the paper but the printer ate about 10 sheets at once.

After I cleared the jam and got the paper set correctly, 

The sermon picked up printing where it had stopped. 

Or so, I thought. 

 

I checked the pages when they came out.

Everything looked good.

I checked the pages on Sunday morning before leaving for church.

Everything looked good.

 

But when I was standing in front of the church,

Delivering the sermon, 

I got to page 6, and it wasn’t there.

I fumbled a bit.

I continue talking while looking for page 6.

I had a feeling of dread in my stomach and thought that I would just skip the second point

But then I realized that I really didn’t need to skip the second point because it was a huge part of the sermon.

Not able to think and continue speaking at the same time, 

I couldn’t recall what the second point was or how I had woven its illustration in. 

 

So I finally decided to just admit defeat.

With what I hope was lighthearted humor, 

I explained that I was missing a page of my sermon, 

but that I didn’t want to skip its message. 

So I asked everyone to forgive me and broke out my phone. 

I opened the file and continued from my phone until page 7. 

 

 

I have two reflections on this little sermon hiccup. 

1.      I’m thankful that I put my phone in my pocket and took it to the pulpit with me. I had considered leaving it in my pew.

2.      I’m thankful that my files are portable. It really is amazing that I can store my files in some imaginary cloud and be able to retrieve them from any device that has my password. Sometimes, this reality is a bit scary. But yesterday, it was very nice, and I am very grateful.

 

Technology got me into a mess

And then technology got me out of a mess. 

What’s technology done to you lately? 

And are you more grateful or aggravated by it? 

 

And. Go.