Every week, a handful of folks from our church get together on Wednesday night to discuss the sermon the pastor preached on Sunday morning. It’s a fin time discussing what we got from the message and bringing up questions we have. At the beginning of our time together this last Wednesday, we realized that none of us had been to church on Sunday! It’s kind of hard to have a discussion about something none of us had heard. Regardless, we had some sermon notes, so we pressed on undaunted.

That turned out to be one of the best discussions time our group has had! We explored the section of scripture, discussed the questions it raised, which lead us to other sections in scripture. I was pleasantly surprised, because I wasn’t expecting it to go that well, since we were all seemingly inadequately prepared.

The thing that made our discussion go so well was that everyone “showed up” and contributed to the conversation with their questions, observations, and experience. What, at the beginning, looked like it could have been a flop, became an encouraging and engaging conversation; all because people contributed what they had to offer, regardless of how ill-prepared we might have felt.

Are there any areas you fill ill-prepared or inadequate? If so, I encourage you to acknowledge that, and offer up what you do have; to move forward regardless, instead of quitting canceling, or giving up.

Who knows, you might be surprised to realize a better outcome that you expect.