Calling Mr. Marie

So yesterday (Sunday) was an interesting day. If anyone ever tries to tell you that little choices that seem inconsequential don't matter, DON'T LISTEN!

DECISION 1: Saturday night another member of the nursery team at FBC St. Peters called me to ask about switching weeks with me. I was fine with that as I am going to be out of town on my week also.
SETBACK 1: However, when I arrived at the nursery yesterday morning the couple I was supposed to switch with had worked everything out and didn't want to switch anymore.
CONSOLATION 1: Since I wouldn't be in the nursery, that means I would get to hear the sermon. Granted, in my hurry to get out the door yesterday with all my VBS supplies, I forgot my Bible. That's okay; that is what pew bibles are for, right?

DECISION 2: This summer has been kind of hectic for me on weekends and I have missed choir a couple of times. So I decided to skip practice Wednesday night to prepare for vacation this week.
SETBACK 2: Because I missed practice this week, I decided not to sing with the choir yesterday. This means that I was sitting front-and-center in the second row for the sermon rather than out of the preacher's line of sight in the third or fourth row as I would have been had I sang with the choir and joined the congregation when we were finished.
CONSOLATION 2: I am a "tried and true" second row "this is my seat" Baptist. Since I skipped choir I got to sit in "my" seat and I had direct eye contact with the preacher.

DECISION 3: Many moons ago I decided to become a religion major and focus on Biblical Languages.
SETBACK 3: Because this is a small program, there are few professors available.
CONSOLATION 3: Because this is a small program, there are few professors available and I was give the opportunity to get to know my professors well and they me. I thought nothing of it when I started going to the same church as several of my professors except that this would be an awesome way to get to know those Christian brothers who have fought the fight longer and better than me.

DECISION 4: For ten years of amazing service, the congregation of FBC St. Peters decided to award the pastor a sabbatical with which he chose to work toward a doctoral degree.
SETBACK 4: To earn a degree at Southern Seminary, you have to do so many "residency hours" several of which my pastor chose to take this week which means that we would need someone to fill the pulpit.
CONSOLATION 4: Dr. McClain was available to serve in that role. Lucky me, he is one of the religion faculty I have gotten to know (his daughter and I were also good friends during our undergrad work).

DECISION 5: After stepping out of the "femi-Nazi" fight and joining the Conservative Christian right, I no longer pursue guys for relationships.
SETBACK 5: I will be turning 26 this week and I am still single. I am in no way complaining, I am just showing how my decision affects me.
CONSOLATION 5: I can now see how the Lord protected me from myself and the bad decisions I would have made if left on my own. I know now that I am following the Lord's will by following my role that He has set before me.

Now I have set you up for my interesting day. Here I am, in the second row, right in Doc's line of sight. He is preaching an awesomely thought-provoking, soul-stirring, heart-convicting sermon where at the end he reminds us that we cannot do this alone. Nor, he says, is he only talking to himself although all of his illustrations were about his failures and the Lord's graces. He is, he says during the sermon, talking about Jerry (music pastor) and his wife and their kids, and Marie (that's me, right there in his line of sight) and her...future husband wherever he is...and their...future kids whoever they are, and Billy, and Jamie and his wife and kids, etc, etc, so on and so forth as he points to different members of the congregation which is his pastoral perogative!

HE JUST ANNOUNCED TO THE ENTIRE CHURCH THAT I AM SINGLE.
(One of the few remaining as we are a dying breed.)

Granted, those who know me should already know this. But it was still embarassing. Then it gets better. I go back to give him a hug after the sermon and tell him that I still love him as my Christian brother even though he just embarassed me in front of the entire church and his response is "Just be glad I didn't say you were single WITH kids." Then he smirked and all was well again. I could deal with the ribbing I was going to get (and did get) from the members my age (i.e. Chuck Beem) but one person surprised me.

Pastor Bob.

Pastor Bob is in charge of the youth and missions opportunities. We have joked around before (it's hard not to when you have gone to the same church for many years) but he still shocked me.

Twice. In the same night, but to different people, he proclaimed that the Prophet McClain has spoken and has called for Mr. Marie to step forward. I think, he says, Mr. Marie will be found this week. The prophet has spoken. And he just kept talking about it. And talking about it.

I suppose it's funny in that mortifying kind of way.

And then VBS started, but I'm not ready to talk about that. Let's just say that 3 hours with those kids last night wore me out worse than an entire weekend with college students (i.e. Welcome Weekend)!

As I read back through this I realize some of the mortifying-ness is lost in translation. You truly need my facial expressions during to story to see how embarassing it was. So, as you read, imagine my face and my awesome story-telling ability. :-) Sarah, if you want, I can tell it to you again. ;-)