Preaching

There was an article in today's paper about the stereotyping of professions. Sometime that stereotyping is by political leanings. Professors, journalists, and artists tend to be more liberal. Law enforcement, doctors and the military tend to be more conservative. Or, sometimes a profession is stereotyped according to gender. Nursing, for example, is 'gender typed' and generally perceived to be a woman's job.

When I googled "preaching" I learned that "preachers" must still be very much gender typed toward male. There were dozens and dozens of images of men preaching, but I could not find even one of a woman behind a pulpit. Therefore, the pulpit I have used for this blog is empty. There are certainly plenty of women preachers; but google has not yet caught up.

Today I preached for the first time in my new interim assignment. When I am preaching, I feel the most alive, the most aligned, the most satisfied. I don't know that I would say that I was "born to preach", because I'm not sure that we are born for just one thing. And I think we are called to different tasks at different times in our lives. For me, later in life, after much preparation and falterings, I come to preaching. I don't think I'm the world's best preacher or anything close to it. But I do believe that I come to my task with passion and conviction.

I know that I come to it with great intensity and joy.

For whatever reasons, people always respond to my preaching with great appreciation. And for that I am grateful.