Liz's Lesson Learned: My Help Comes From the Lord

Knowing my help comes from the Lord has been my mantra for decades now. This dependence on the Lord proven to be true over and over again.  Spiritually, I follow Jesus.  I preach about a risen Savior.  I claim Him as my own.  I ask Him for more wisdom and understanding every day.  A prayer is never far from my lips.  Those who know me know can tell you just how important my spiritual life is.  They know how I rely on God for everything.  They’ve heard me repeatedly say that know God answers prayer.  This was true long before I was licensed to preach, became a minister, got a master’s or doctorate in the field. 

I also consider myself to be a pretty tech savvy type of person.  Most computers and software and Bluetooth products I can operate or learn to operate pretty easily.  I’ve even dabbled a little in basic programming and website design.  So, I do not shy away from computer troubleshooting opportunities. 

Those two character summaries tie well into what follows.  Well, Good Friday, 2026 would put all that spiritual and technological understanding and belief to the test…

I had been asked to be one of the preachers for our Good Friday 7 Last Words Service.  The email I read said:  “Rev. Wiggins – 5^th Word– I thirst”.

I recalled having preached that word before, but was surprised to discover I had written that homily more than 12 years ago.  To myself, I said, “Let me read over this homily. I can probably deliver it again.  I mean, we are in the middle of another war and surely there are many parallels, right?”

On Tuesday or Wednesday of that week, I sat down and began reading the homily.  And to my dismay, what I read had similarities, but was not the message I wanted to deliver.  Not only that, during my reading of the older one, I discovered that it was mostly in outline format.  While I still do not read my sermons verbatim, I do flush out my thought more.   And that is exactly what I decided to do this time.

The older sermonette was called I thirst.  This time I decided to give it the title “Water, Vinegar, and Jesus – I Thirst”.

Title set, I turned to bringing the homily up-to-date.  The overall message, you ask. To tell the hearer that Jesus is better than vinegar; will out do tap or bottled water every time, and He is a Savior that is always there, waiting to quench our thirst. 

Homily written, I turned to preparing my clothes.  I knew I would wear my black clergy robe and I had it dry-cleaned so it would be fresh.  I chose a long lima bean green high-necked dress and a sweater of the same color.  I also picked out some black ankle-strapped, 3-inch heels to match.  I had purchased the dress while I was in South Africa, and it would be my first time wearing it.  I pulled out black undergarments and set things aside so I could put them on quickly.  I had an eye doctor appointment that day and knew I would not have time to fool around. 

I went the dental appointment and on the way back, I stopped and picked up about thirty bottles and, cans, of assorted drinks to be used when I preached.

I got back home just in time to print my homily change my clothes and drive to church without hurrying.  I had even been praying for smooth sailing and so far my prayers had been answered affirmatively.  And then it happened.

I sat down at to print the homily and it did not print.  I tried several times, and it did not print.  I checked to be certain the printer was selected and that the fax option was not chosen.  It did not print.  I tried turning the document into a PDF and then printing and it would not print.  I restarted the printer.  It did not print.  I restarted the laptop. It did not print.  I copied the entire document (except the final return character and pasted it into a new document., It still did not print.

Well, by now, the window of extra time had slipped away!  So, I stopped trying to print and quickly jumped into my clothes.  I put on a pair of tennis shoes so I could walk quickly, knowing I could change shoes when I got to church.

I then returned to the dilemma of printing my sermon.  No luck.  I decided to email the document to myself, and I then ask the church secretary to print it for me.  If that failed, I could pull it up on my phone.

With no time to look at myself in the mirror, I rushed back and forth in and out of the house to be certain I had everything. Took a deep breath and drove to the church (luckily all the lights were in my favor) I arrived 10 minutes late.  I pulled out my carrier out of the trunk and loaded the drink in it.  I rolled the carrier along the way.  Packed with drinks and my robe and my shoes and my fanny pack, I rushed into the church.  There was no time to ask for help printing, I had to get to the sanctuary.  The first preacher was delivering the first Word.  So, I sat in a pew halfway down the left side of the sanctuary and listened and waited.  While I waited, I tried to pull up my homily on my phone. 

Now I have pulled documents up on that phone countless times.  But on this Good Friday, moments before I was supposed to preach, my phone failed me.  I tried several times, and it did not work!!

For a fleeting second, that pesky devil tried to render me defeated and get me to leave.  Trying to print that thing meant I had not looked at my outfit like I should have, it meant that I did not have time for one or two more readings through my homily.  it meant I was having one hot flash after another.  No time to don my robe or put on my heels.  I helped sing the hymns and the songs from my seat.  For me, there is nothing like an old hymn sung with expression to have the Holy Spirit calm my soul; but I did not have my homily!

Oh, did I mention the plan was to have the drinks and things set up before the service began. Well, I did not get to do that either. 

And then I was called to come to the pulpit because I would be in the next group of preachers.  I felt unprepared so I remained in my seat, until it was time for me to go forward. 

Up to the pulpit I went.  Still not knowing exactly what I would say. And just as I was getting into preaching words, I noticed the slit in my dress.  It was higher than any slit I had every worn when I thought I was young and deserved to show my legs.  But it was too late, no robes, tennis shoes on my feet and a slit that only my black slip helped to cover…   And this is how I opened…

I believe God is good to us all.  I believe he's good even when sometimes, to me, I feel like I might have been left behind.  I’m feeling a little like that today.  Indeed, I'm thirsty.  And what do you think I'm a little thirsty for.  Let me tell you what happens to you when you get thirsty.  Bug first let me say, so many think ministers are supposed to have it together -- don't you?  We are supposed to come to church in our pristine robes, with our hair done and looking all sanctified and everything.

But I’m here to tell you that the best laid plans go astray, and what you end up seeing is that minister being thirsty.  So, let me tell you what happens when I’m thirsty.  You see, I had a plan. I had my shoes ready to March for Jesus.  I went and got my robe cleaned so I'd be ready to put it on and preach the gospel.  But when it came time to go out of that house… Let me tell you what happened…  as God is my witness, he would not let me print out my sermon.  I’m pretty good at working with technology.  But, let me tell you how it is when you have a modern phone, and you send the service through email, so that you can then have it printed out cause you can send things to print from the phone, if there's a problem.  It won't let me show my sermon on the phone, and it won’t let me send it to another computer to print.  It will not hook up to my printer.  Somehow,  it did print a couple of pages and then it stopped.  So sometimes you get thirsty.

You don't think you're going to be thirsty, but God doesn't say that you won't be thirsty.  He wants to know what you're thirsting for.  So, I was supposed to tell y'all about thirsting after water, getting a little bit of vinegar, and then having Jesus. So, I'm going to pray to God that since he won't let me print it out, perhaps he'll give me some words… What do think?

After all of that calamity, did I learn a lesson?  I did indeed!  Lesson learned… my help comes from the Lord. He may have said no you will not have a printout of this homily; no matter what you try.  And you will stop trying once you realize I said no.  I didn’t stop praying, though.  And then he said, "Yes, you will have a word.  Many who heard said I did a great job.  Those whom I did not know remarked on the Word I delivered.  It is so true that where one door is closed… God will open another. 

My pastor, for many years, once said a preacher should always have a sermon in his or her pocket so he/she is always ready to preach.  He was right.  In my time of need, where do I go?  That’s just too easy.  My help comes from the Lord, y’all.