I prayed for my pastor today.

He had crawled up into the church’s playground equipment and was scrubbing graffitied profanity with a magic eraser. 

As I watched him scrub, I thought of the many times people brought him their sins, cloaked as problems to be solved. Instead of offering magic erasers, my pastor gave the Gospel Truth that Jesus is the only One who can forgive sins, and repentance is all that is needed.

I prayed for my pastor today.

He was cooking the potluck meal in the...