PULPIT PRAYERS FROM A PASTOR'S HEART
David C. Fisher
April 1, 1986
The organist played softly as the ushers collected the morning offering. Young and inexperienced, I usually used these moments to review my sermon notes one last time.
That Sunday, however, I looked at the faces of the congregation and soon forgot my sermon. As if scales fell from my eyes, I saw beyond appearances to real life.
In the third pew on the right slumped the pregnant high school girl. On one side sat her mother; on the other her boyfriend and his mother. It was his mother's first time in our church. They all looked as if their whole world had tumbled in. It had. On Tuesday I had agonized with the girl as she poured out her soul to me.
Just behind her sat a widow. Her son-in-law had recently abandoned her daughter, leaving three teenage granddaughters filled with bitterness. "What can I do?" she had asked me. I didn't have a lot of advice. We grieved together.
Nearby sat her sister-in-law, also widowed. Her pride in life, a son in the ministry, had just left his wife and church for a fling with another woman. A mother's dream lay crushed. She bore her sorrow alone.
Beside her sat a granddaughter recovering from years of life in the fast lane. Bruised and confused, she wrestled with life and faith. I worried for her.
Halfway hack huddled a young couple trying to put their marriage back together. An extramarital affair within the congregation nearly destroyed their family and threatened the church. It was so hard for them to live with the past and their memories. After all, just across the aisle sat the other party in the affair. We rejoiced in real repentance and reconciliation, but I ached with them. The pain cut so deep. Small towns and churches are not very forgiving.
In the back on the left side, another young couple ...
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