Elvis taught me how to preach

Of course, we had professors for that back in seminary, professors of homilectics is what they were called. But I loved Elvis long before I loved Jesus, and the freedom, the longing and the power in his voice were prayers.

I wanted to be Elvis. Recently, I watched a DVD of his 1968 Comeback Special, a show my parents let me stay up late to watch back when I was 10 years old.

I can't sing a lick, but it occurred to me as I watched him that the passion in his voice was what I was going for every time I got behind a pulpit. And the way he would hold his hands when he was belting a ballad is something I've caught myself doing when I would tell one of the Old Testament stories or the Gospel accounts of Jesus' healing touch.

I was listening to the radio last night and they mentioned that Elvis' birthday is today, Jan. 8.
When I was in high school, the one thing you didn't want to be was an Elvis fan. He was considered a joke. So I had to hide from my friends the fact that I went to see him in concert.

But Elvis was a kind of prophet for me, whispering that there was more to life than high school disappointments, than the trailer parks and truck stop diners that circumscribed my life at the time. So, it makes me happy to think of him now and again.