I Spoke On Behalf of the President of the United States

No, the above title is not hyperbole, but perhaps requires an explanation.  I recently narrated a military retirement ceremony during which the retiree received a letter from the President of the United States, Mr. Barack Obama.  As narrator, I had the honor and privilege to read the letter to the recipient aloud before the audience.  As I read, I found myself focused on the pronouns, “I” and “you” and became imminently aware that I was, in fact, speaking for the President, using his words, to convey his personal gratitude toward the retiree.  Pretty cool, you may think?  It made me sweat.  I realized I was specifically authorized at that moment to be a messenger for the most powerful man in the country, for the most powerful country in the world. 

Now, in hindsight, perhaps I had put too much thought into the occasion.  My reaction nevertheless occurred and it had a lasting effect on me the rest of the day.   I also realized I felt a bit of guilt.  Why?  I wondered how it could be that I did not feel the same way when I read the Word of God aloud before others.  The letter I read at the retirement ceremony will decay and fall to pieces as it ages, was written by a mortal man that will one day return to the dust, and represented a nation that will also one day go the way of all the other ancient civilizations in the manner of ruins and artifacts.  If I am moved by being a messenger for such temporal things, how much more should I feel reverence and awe when I read aloud before others the very words of the Creator who made the heavens and the Earth?  May we all read God's Word with the seriousness and weight it deserves.