SPEAKING AT KIWANIS MEETING

Noontime today was my appointed time to address the Kiwanis at the First Methodist Church in downtown Tulsa. My assignment was to speak on Easter...."but don't preach a sermon". While I began preparation last week, I could not get a feel for what to say. Saturday I worked on my talk some and then this morning I stayed in the office and finalized the plan of attack.

I didn't feel good about what I had. It was all right, but not "the message" I'm used to sensing beforehand. I just couldn't get the feel. Having arrived thirty minutes early I sat in my car and prayed about the vacant direction such preparation had taken me. I thanked Him for taking care of what I viewed to be an important opportunity.

So I entered the hall excited to be invited and unexcited over what I felt they were about to hear. We were served a nice meal and I met several good-natured members of this group. There was a lot of preliminary remarks as well as recognitions distributed. A CPA, Lee Swarthout, introduced me. But just before him, another Kiwanis member introduced Lee as the one who would introduce me and mentioned him being a avid golfer. Bingo!

That quick portion of a sentence unlocked thoughts as if one had opened a medicine cabinet packed with loose marbles. The ideas fell out of the air. I ditched what few notes I had made and told of Easter being the secret to societal needs. That Jesus looked into the stark threat of death and beat it. Such information translates into to us reversing discouraging encounters.

Golf? I got this from hearing about golf?

Then I opened by telling them of the time I went to the PGA Tournament a few year back and after standing 2 1/2 hours in silence called out to Jim Furyk wanting to know why I had yet met a pro golfer....and maybe he might be the one. They laughed. They got it. And off we went sharing story after story about times which appeared to be lemon sours only to become wonderful lemonade moments.

I challenged them to note the times this week when they encounter discouraged individuals and to see if they possibly could counter with resurrection power to bring joy into dismal settings. We had a great time. One even said he's coming to visit our church soon. I left grateful for two things: (1) the message of hope Easter truly has, and (2) that God would resurrect a set of notes previously headed nowhere special.