Oh Poo... Writer's Block

Well, shoot. It has come around to Wednesday and I still haven't written my sermon for this Sunday. I know the Scriptures we will hear, and I know the feeling I want to communicate. But that's where it stops. Every time I sit down to try to write, I've got nothing. I don't know how to start, or where to finish. I know that the whole "writer writing about writer's block" thing has been done to death, but I don't know where else to go with it.

I will tell you something interesting I saw on my walk yesterday evening, though. It was an interchange between two strangers. I was going up the way, when I noticed a middle-aged guy walking his dog. As he made his way towards me I noticed his Christian themed t-shirt, and his ball cap advertising a local church. When he got about fifteen yards off, the dog came to a sudden halt (jerking the guy backwards in the process- I had to try not to laugh) and started to squat and do what dogs do. He waited for it to finish and as he was kneeling down to pick up the present his pooch had left him, another man jogged past me and toward him. Mr. Jogger was all tattoos and a sleeveless t-shirt. The chain hanging from the side of his jean shorts (I thought people stopped wearing those in the late nineties!) jingling as he ran. He went right past our kneeling friend and his pooch, then he stopped. He turned around and looked at the man and said, "Buddy, you deserve an award! I come through here every day and this is the first time I have seen somebody stop and do the right thing and pick up after their dog." The kneeling man looked up, bemused and nodded saying a barely audible "thanks..." then he looked down to tie up his bag. The jogger said to him, "No, I mean it. I had to have passed at least forty people this week, and you were the first one to stop. I've seen folks who are rich and powerful (how he knew that is anyone's guess), and the higher they are, the less likely to stop. Shoot, try and ask them to pick it up, to obey the law and they go off on you, 'Do you know who I am!?!' I really appreciate your doing this, man, God bless you."

I wondered as I passed them, and the jogger came by me a second time, if this wasn't a good model for sharing the faith. The guy with the dog-doo had identified himself as Christian (by his dress), and just did what he was supposed to do. The stranger looked on, appreciated the action, thanked the man and gave thanks to God.