I hate trying to talk while I’m in the dentist chair. It vexes me why anyone would ask me questions while drilling, scraping, or spraying my teeth. I hope they don’t expect anything more than an “uh-huh” or “huh-uh.” Recently, however, my dental hygienist asked me how long it takes me to prepare a sermon. When I was free to access the full range of my phonetic members, I said, “Sometimes it can take as much as 20 hours.”
“20 hours! 20 hours!” she shouted. She ran around the office telling her colleagues with surprise, “Did you know that sometimes it takes him 20 hours to prepare a single message?” I didn’t expect such a response.
But why did the length of my sermon prep fascinate her, and why did she think anyone else would care? Because the dental hygienist and her colleagues are Mormons. In the LDS church, the local bishops are volunteers. They don’t deliver sermons each week. They often arrange for one of the members to share an anecdotal testimony during their meeting. Almost no preparation necessary. So, I tried to explain to her why it took me so much time. I told her my job is
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