Confused? Let me explain...We have a ministry at East Ridge Retirement Center. We go there every week and have a service for residents there who cannot make it to church with us at Ridgedale. As you might expect they are in their 70's, 80's and 90's. The man who heads up this ministry and is usually there on Sunday mornings is going to be out of town this week. He needed someone to replace him so since I work with the youth, he asked me. You might think that is crazy, but my first thought was, "Finally, a group who will really understand my Murder, She Wrote illustrations!"

As we talked over what the service would be, I asked if I could talk about whatever I wanted or was there a certain book of the Bible or study they were going through. He said they were doing a study on Wisdom in Everyday Life. From Proverbs. This week is chapter 6.

So I am gonna talk to old people about wisdom. I ate homemade ice cream and Doritos for dinner tonight, I'm not sure I'm qualified to talk to anyone about wisdom. What makes it better is that the title of this week's study is "Three Rules For Working Smart." Huh? "Working Smart"???

The people I am talking to are retired. You know how I know that... It says it right there in the name: East Ridge Retirement Center. Hmm, we'll see how that goes.

To increase my chances of being successful I bought a new blazer today. I actually bought two. I tried on more blazers today in twenty minutes than I have in my whole life... and narry a one was new. The two I bought were a total of $7.47. They are pretty snazzy.

I figured I would seem wiser if I were wearing a blazer. It works for college professors so why not nursing home preachers. Pretty smart, huh? Wisdom, I'm full of it.

I'm also leading the music, which should be interesting. They said, "Have you ever led music?" and I said, "No." They said, "Well, I'm sure you'll do great."

Fantastic!

I spoke with Mrs. Carolyn who plays the piano and we are gonna sing several old hymns and end with Amazing Grace because if we don't sing it they get upset. I was thinking that since they like it so much we might forego the hymns and just sing it 4 times, you know, just to give me a head start going into the sermon. On wisdom. In the workplace. For people who live at the retirement center.

I can't wait to let you know how it went. Especially the "bedhead" illustration. It
will probably go a little bit like this:

Me: "blah, blah, blah, bedhead, blah, blah..."

Bertha: "What? Bed what? What? Bread when? Huh?"

Me: "No, "bedhead". Bed... Head."

Bertha: "Bed...Head?? What is that?"

Me: "It's, you know, your hair when you first get out of bed in the morning... before you fix it. It's sticking up in some places, and it's flat in some places and... well, like Mrs. Ruth's there for instance... Or Elmer... Or that whole row right there..."

Yeah, I might just stick with the JB Fletcher references.