Something that I do at church, and do really well, is read the scripture. I absolutely love getting up in front of the congregation to read the lesson. I try to work through it ahead of time so that I know the context and can add the proper inflections to help people connect with the story. (Nothing worse than just a dry reading, but that’s what you see in most churches.)
Yesterday I was doing a reading from Isaiah. I thought I had nailed it. So I was surprised when I went back to my seat and Ellen leaned over and said “Better wear your glasses next time. You messed up some stuff.” I was outraged.
Since one of my other jobs at church is to record the service, I was able to “go to the tape” when we got home. Turns out I messed up two words.
The verse was, “‘Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”, and I said “Why do we fast, but you do not see? We humble ourselves, but you do not notice?'” And the other verse was, “Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself?”, and I said “Is such the fast that I chose, a day to humble oneself?”
But what really ticked me off was that I was offended – the hell I messed up! I let my ego get the better of me and had to prove, ostensibly to myself but probably to my wife, that I was right. Of course, I was wrong.
Damn. Gotta work on that one. Put the ego in the backseat, not the driver’s seat.