Sometimes in life, we just need to skip to the good part. There’s no shame in it, though our own inner voices may pass some harsh judgment on us, sometimes it’s just what we need to do. Heck, I won’t judge you, because I do it too.

When I read a novel, I often read the end first, or really, if I like the first few chapters, I’ll read the end because for me, honestly, the best part isn’t the anticipation of what will happen. That anticipation is actually quite unpleasant to me. I want to know how it’s going to happen – and therein lies the joy for me. (And when my husband and I recently watched the movie Inception for the first time the other night, we’d figured out the ending by the 45 minute mark, and we were right. But the joy for us was watching just how the story got to the end, which was an utterly fantastic ride, btw.)

Why Skip To The Good Part?

Sometimes, to be brutally honest, the good part is the only part you need. For other people, the good part is encased in the midst of stuff they’ll never need.

When your short on time and long on need, sometimes you need to skip to the good part.

When you’re convincing a friend how useful it is, sometimes you need to skip to the good part.

When you’ve triaged your entire life (or maybe you’ve just streamlined, or taken KonMari to the next level) and you’ve plain gotten rid of all the extraneous things, the good parts are mostly what is left.

What’s The Good Part Today?

Some of you know I’m a priest. A few of you may realize that in quarantine I’ve been offering digital worship services (here’s a playlist of them from YouTube channel). What no one might realize is that I’ve started posting just the sermon as well, so people who don’t feel the need to participate in millennia-old-ritual-turned-digital can still skip to the good part. So, yes, I’ll be preaching on ancient wisdom, but no, I won’t be reading it out. (In the worship, I read it out. In the sermon video… the sermon stands alone.) I’ll be referencing the ancient wisdom obliquely, so in the future when I post Just the Good Part, I’ll include the references and links in case you want to actually go back and read the original sources I’m interpreting.

I’ve got some backlog, if you’re curious, and every Sunday morning, I’ll post another here, complete with references so you can find it all easily.