PICKING A TOPIC FOR A TALK
Last year I attended a men’s retreat presented by laymen, and this year I am part of the planning committee for a repeat. The retreat has an established format, and there are a number of themes on which each year basically similar talks are given, drawing largely on the life experiences and struggles of the staff members. The themes center on Loving God through Knowing Oneself, through Trust, through Faith in the Word, through the Sacraments, Prayer, Healing of Memories, Trust, and Family and Friends. I too was appointed to give a short talk.
It wasn’t at first clear to me what kind of talk was expected of me. Speaking to one of the leaders, I found that it was not necessarily to be on one of the established themes, but rather to just be something drawn from my own life that might touch or be of some import to the attendees. I thought of relating a couple of Army experiences, one of humiliation and the other, related, of getting some well-appreciated support. I thought of recounting a few of my failures with women, making a play for pity as one of life’s losers from all the married ’salt of the earth’ types I’d be addressing. Or I could go about how I’m not primarily concerned with the Top Ten for Men of sports,work, wife, kids, dog, house, car, lawn, TV, and sports [sic].
A few more subjects occurred to me, but I finally decided to talk about three times in my life when other people unexpectedly came to my assistance, times which I might subtly suggest were the work of the Lord.
