Standing behind the Pulpit

An unexpected thing happened to me this past Sunday.  I was sitting up in the front of the church, during the opening prayer, scripture, and songs, when I began to feel the need to say something.  I knew that my sermon was approaching soon, and I didn't feel that I could go forward with preaching the Word of God until I had cleared something up.  There was a problem between myself and one of my congregation, something that I had apologized for in person earlier, but something that was known to others as well.  Rather than allow some to wonder how I felt, or to hear about my actions secondhand, I decided to step in front of the alter and talk to my congregation directly.  Now before anyone gets any ideas; the problem revolved around a careless comment made on an earlier date, the kind of thing we all do from time to time, but a problem because of my unique role in shepherding this church. 
In the end, the short comment that I was intending to deliver evolved into about a ten minute rambling discussion of the ups and downs that we've seen as a church in my years there, as well as my hopes and fears for our future.  At one point, one of my senior saints decided to chime in with, "stop beating yourself up and start preaching".
It was a different sort of experience; I've known for years that my conscience becomes more keen when I'm going to be serving Communion, anything that has been lingering between myself and God gets cleared up, but this was the first time that I've felt the need to wait before giving my Sunday sermon.  It's a powerful thing to stand in front of others and tell them what the Word of God says, certainly not something to be taken lightly...