I was away at our annual staff retreat this past weekend with the rest of our pastoral staff and the deacons joined us on Friday night. We were asked ahead of time to be prepared to share “our most embarrassing moment” that could be told in public. I had my moment in mind, but when we gathered together to start sharing, I found out that the assignment was “our most embarrassing moment in church.” Well, I changed my plan pretty quickly. It turns out that most of us never shared our embarrassing moment just because of the schedule of things over the weekend. However, our senior pastor, Mike, said something very interesting that has stirred me more than I expected it to. This is what he said: ‘We all tell our stories all the time. There really is no way for us not to – its part of our make-up.”
Was I going to tell my story through my embarrassing moment? Surely not – it was just a funny story. But then I had to think about what I had planned to share.
- Most embarrassing moment: I wrecked my brother’s car when I was 19 years old. It was a pretty bad wreck. Nobody got hurt. The car I hit had no real damage, but my brother’s car was in bad shape. The embarrassing part of that situation was that when I told my best friend about the accident, he said to me, “well, hitting that bird in the middle of the night is really small potatoes now!” We had gone joy riding in the middle of the night a few months before and got a bird stuck in the front-end of the car. I freaked out about that, but yes, it was small potatoes compared to the wreck I had earlier that day.
- My most embarrassing moment in church: the first baptism I officiated. In our baptismal, the pastor stands outside of the waters altogether. This makes it a little shaky as you lean over with the person being baptized to get him or her out of the water. I leaned a little too far and audibly groaned as I picked him back up from submersion. I’m not sure how many heard, but I did and was completely embarrassed.
I know, I know, not a big deal on either count. But as I reflected on what Mike said about us telling our stories, I couldn’t help but think that I really would have been sharing ME through either. I don’t like coming across as un-polished or presenting a product that is sub-par. I strive for excellence in everything I do, recognizing that I won’t succeed in that 100 percent of the time. However, it is my preference.
So, what is my take-away from this exercise? I’m going to try hard not to beat myself up too badly when the outcome is different from what I planned. I know how to “roll with the punches,” but I think its important to be able to laugh at yourself once in a while, too. I don’t know if this speaks to anyone who happens to read these thoughts of mine, but my prayer for you is that you understand we are presented perfect IN CHRIST ALONE. I won’t live my life mistake-free and neither will you. However, as I learn to trust Jesus in the little things as much as I do in the big things, I will learn to not take the slips and stumbles I make today as seriously as I used to.
What’s YOUR story?
Blessings!
