I went to church last night and it was like a cross between a regular church service and a prayer service, in that it was a regular service, we just did a whole lot more praying than usual. Attendance was way up too. Usually on a Saturday night there's like, oh, I don't know, 800 people at church, and last night there were about 2000.
Everything was scooting along just fine when, at the end of the service, the pastor had us stand and pray after him. We'd done this once or twice already that night, so everyone joined right on in. It started off as just a normal prayer, "We pray for the victims of this terrible tragedy and for the leaders of our nation..." stuff like that. The pastor saying it, the congregation repeating it. And then, in the middle of if all, the pastor says, "And Lord, I rededicate my life to You." And everybody says, "And Lord, I rededicate my life to You." "Thank you, Jesus, for coming into my life, and being my Saviour." "Thank you, Jesus..." And I'm standing there, repeating along with the rest of the congregation, but afterwards, I think to myself, gee, that sure was a tricky way to throw that in. Wasn't expecting to rededicate my life tonight. I wonder how many other people were taken off guard.
It's not that I minded or anything, but, you know, usually you get some kind of warning before the pastor prays words like that.