Dear Friends,
I usually do not take this blog in a very religionry direction because, while I like to spark controversy as much as Perez Hilton, I do prefer to keep God out of the debate. Dis me as you will, I’ve got thick skin, but leave My Main Man out of it—that’s what I say, yo. Not that God doesn’t have thick skin—as far as skin goes, I’d bet He’s got the most heavenly thickness imaginable, on account of everyone cursing Him on such a regular basis—but I just don’t like to hear it. Make sense?
Today, however, I must break my rule. As you know, when good things happen to me, I share them with my blog readers. That’s my motto. That’s the Archives of Our Lives promise. That’s what I do. So I could not let this heavenly experience pass without exclaiming from the rooftops of this website that GOD LIVES! I have faith, and you can, too. Let me tell you what happened:
On Friday, we Mayberrians got a blizzard warning, and did it ever blizzard. In my four years of knowing Mayberry, I have never seen it snow so much. And I’ve seen a lot of snow. Suffice it to say, this was nasty. And it didn’t end on Friday, either. It blizzarded on through the night and well into the day on Saturday. Poor Kyle and I didn’t leave the house except for once, and that was a bad idea. The whole town was pretty much snowed in. We decided to spend Saturday night at home bundled up with our laptops, and at one point during the evening, I speculated to Poor Kyle, “Hey, what if they cancel church tomorrow because of the snow?”
He laughed at me and said, “Wishful thinking, my dear. I’ve never seen them cancel church on account of snow before.”
I was disappointed—I thought, “I am not gonna want to go out in this and I drive a truck—how are the little old widow ladies gonna make it?” But I knew Poor Kyle was probably right; he’s lived in Mayberry for nearly thirty years, and if he’d never seen it happen, I wouldn’t either.
But just to be sure, I called my mother-in-law: “Hey,” I began, “you don’t think there’s any way they’ll cancel church tomorrow, do you?”
“Ha!” she bellowed, “You wish!”
Yeah. It was so not happening.
Still, I couldn’t quite get the idea out of my head. Don’t get me wrong—I love church. I really do. When I’m out of town or sick and miss a week of it, I notice the effect of its absence during the following week. But my duties at church deem that I am up and ready by 10:00 a.m. so I can be at church choir at 11:00 a.m. where I stay until 12:30 p.m. and then head directly to church at 12:35 p.m. where I stay until 4:00 p.m. and sometimes longer. It’s just a long day, you see, and after playing the piano and organ for so many hours, my left shoulder is always in intense pain (I think it’s chronic), and some mornings, I’m not gonna lie, I wish I could just stay in bed. For church to be cancelled on account of snow just…sounded amazing this week. I was already exhausted from the second to last week of classes, and mounting stress for final papers and final exams, and plus it was cold and I just didn’t want to leave my house.
But I was told it was impossible for church to be canceled—it never happens. And I couldn’t just call in sick, because they need an organist; and while I know there are many people in my congregation who could cover for me, they were all just as snowed in as I was. I resigned myself to my fate, but I never lost the dream…
…so imagine my delight, then, when I got a phone call on Saturday night notifying me that church was cancelled the next day on account of nobody being able to leave their homes!
I was pretty much giddy.
I called everyone I knew with the exciting news, but it turned out that everyone already knew, which is just my fate—I’m always the last to know.
But in reality, I was the first to know because it was my great faith that convinced God to step in and cancel church. My husband and his mother, they were doubters all along. But me? I held strong in my conviction through the evening, and God is a gentle, caring God, and he heard my plea (even if I never actually plead—he heard the desires of my heart to sleep in the next morning) and I was blessed!
My friends, I am here to testify that God exists. Does it seem a bit contradictory that a day of canceled worship services actually lead to the strengthening of my belief in God, a faith-promoting experience? Yes, it does seem rather odd. But God moves in mysterious ways. I could not move a mountain with all the strength in my being’s every fiber, but if God wanted me to…I totally could.
Amen.
p.s. Just so you believe me…
…and…
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