Once when I was asked to participate in Sacrament Meeting as a youth speaker, my brother and I came up with an ingenious idea for a 3 to 5 minute talk. I stood up and announced that the theme of my talk would be trusting in the spirit. I then declared that to demonstrate my trust in the spirit I hadn't prepare anything for the talk and was now going to trust in the spirit to direct me to say something profound.What followed was awkward silence as I stood at the pulpit waiting for my inspiration to come. I would frantically leaf through my scriptures, turn to the microphone like I had something to say and then quickly turn away, and generally act like I was in a panic. Finally, after a couple of minutes of this, I starting into my prepared talk (which was more a message than anything) on how in order to expect the spirit in our lives, we need to do some work to warrant it.
The talk/performance was a disaster. It was clear that nobody in the congregation knew what to make of my antics. Sacrament Meeting, it seems, is no place for performance art. But all was not lost, the experience did indirectly lead to today's gag some 25 years later.
That's a funny comic and story. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI would absolutely LOVE to see something like that in Sacrament Meeting.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I would love to hear a talk that didn't start with a quotation from Webster's Dictionary.
What exactly would you like to see in Sacrament Meeting, Eric? Me failing uncomfortably with an ill-conceived piece of performance art?
DeleteBecause, as I remember it, it was your idea that led me down that unfortunate path.
...and I thought that was just another Mormon myth! You're legend!
ReplyDeleteHaHaha!
ReplyDelete