I feel pretty confident as a writer –it comes naturally and it’s in my wheel house, but public speaking on the other hand, has been a long process over the last ten years of trial and error, practice and more practice and an unfailing trust that God has got my back even when I’m TERRIFIED.
I used to be one of “those” people they quote in statistics; you know the ones who would rather die than get on a stage and open their mouth?
Clearly God has a sense of humor about my current occupation as writer/speaker.
So, I’m finally to the point where I’m mostly comfortable up front and can laugh and joke and poke fun with the crowd, but I’m still learning how to handle the unexpected without getting my feathers flustered.
Like last Monday night at Frister’s when the powers of evil tried to take me out in the women’s restroom.
I pulled up to Yorba Linda Friend’s church a few minutes early and managed to get lost in the massive worship center before I located the area I was to speak for the young women’s group. Then I searched for the bathroom.
Not to be too graphic…but I had to tinkle –BAD.
Yep, I was doing the potty dance and when I finally located the long bay of restrooms I ran in with great relief.
And since I had a really full bladder, I figured I had a minute or two to check the Twitter feed on my iPhone for the Boston Marathon bombings.
(No judgment please)
Within a few seconds, I was totally engrossed in the news and pictures and terrible sadness when all of a sudden the lights turned off.
And it was pitch black, darker than dark.
I’m not kidding –it was the absence of all light.
No windows existed in the cavernous ladies restroom of the Friend’s Church and I couldn’t see an inch in front of me except for my trusty iPhone.
I managed to button up and stand, slightly panicked, when my tiny source of illumination and hope flickered out.
My iPhone died.
Seriously?
Now real panic set in.
I figured I was in one of those bathrooms where the lights are triggered by motion. So I frantically waved my arms around like a crazy person.
BAD IDEA SAM.
This resulted in bone crushing pain to my right arm but still no light.
Clutching my arm and purse I finally got the lock open on the door, staggered out and crashed into the sink.
As I howled in pain, jumped up and down and dropped more BAD words than the FRIENDS probably ever heard, the lights FINALLY turned back on.
I glanced in the mirror and groaned.
There I stood, three minutes before go-time, with black mascara and tears streaming down my face, hair and clothes completely disheveled and an arm I couldn’t lift.
How was I supposed to pull this train-wreck together? I was pretty sure my arm was fractured.
And then I thought about the marathon runners in Boston who gave blood after running 26 miles and the rescue workers trudging on and the people fighting for their lives with blown off limbs.
And I knew the power of a God who raised Christ from the dead could get me through the next hour.
Seconds later I walked out of the bathroom from HELL and did the job God called me to do.
Fast forward sixty minutes and now I’m praying with a young girl in tears convicted to end her life of promiscuity. It was humbling and healing and so REDEMPTIVE.
And I thought about our responsibility as ministers and representatives of Christ.
My job is not to entertain or put on a show or dazzle with words.
It’s really just to show up –real and wounded and raw.
And somehow, in spite of all our fears and clutziness and epic bathroom debacles he uses the scared and the weakest of these to show HIS glory.
How does God show up in your weak moments?
