We're Not the Living Water. We're Only the Pipe
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When someone says to us after our reading, "Great Job!" or "You really nailed it up there," these accolades can be dangerous to our health as a lector when we bask in them too much.
A friend once said to my wife, Carol, "I get excited when I hear George read." Nice ego boost, but then I suddenly found myself trying to live up to her compliment, and reading to her instead of the congregation.
Compliments are fine as long as we can maintain our humility and keep our focus on our listeners instead of ourselves. Fr. Michael Sparough, in his lector training program, This is the Word of the Lord, said it best: "We are not the living water. We're only the pipe."
The instant we think about ourselves when we read, we lock out God and prevent Him from speaking through us the way he desires. We have to take ourselves out of our readings, step aside, let God guide our voices and take zero credit.
"When we say, 'What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, what wonderful insight,' what opportunity does the Gospel of God have through all that? It cannot get through because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message"... Oswald Chambers - My Utmost for His Highest
