The first half of the conference is drawing to a close.  The tournament is over, my speeches are finished, and I think it’s been pretty cool.

I don’t think much has changed on the outside.  I’m still scared of giving speeches.  I’m still really bad at giving speeches.  Attending MASTERS just isn’t my idea of fun-filled week and a half.

But I’ve been thinking about weaknesses, and God using them and turning them into strengths.  Today, I performed what I consider my worst speech twice–an allegorical story, written by my mother around twenty years ago (the story itself is awesome, by the way).  Twice, my judges had tears in their eyes at the end.  Twice, they commented on what a beautiful story it was.  One of the ladies asked if I’d be competing with it throughout the year, and when I told her I didn’t want to, she said she would pray for me.  “What we can’t do, God can,” she said.

I don’t know why she said that, because it applies so perfectly to how I feel.  I don’t know why those  two ladies were moved to tears, or what they saw in my speech that touched them.  The speech itself is a disaster–an enormous weakness of mine.  But somehow, when I got up and blurted out my six and a half minutes of poorly-performed story, God did something.  It had to be God, because I know that no speech of mine would ever do that on its own.  And maybe, He used my weakness, and all my inept stuttering and stumbling, to show His strength to the two ladies watching.  His strength!

That…is incredible.

Well, I’m sorry I don’t have anything less introspective to share today.  Congratulations and many thanks to any of you who took the time to read it!

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