…at an awkward time…

Do you answer? 

Do you put the call on hold? 

But what if nature won’t be placed on hold?

What do you do?  

Nature gave me a call last Sunday during the Sunday morning service a few minutes before it was time for me to step up on the platform and deliver the weekly sermon.  

I tried to ignore the call knowing it would call back later.   But Nature would not wait.  

Didn’t Nature know what time it was and where I was?!

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says there is a time for everything.  Really?  Is this the right time?  

“I think I can make it back,” I whispered to Denise, my wife, sitting beside me, and tried to walk nonchalantly from the front row to the hallway restroom. 

I should have run. I didn’t make it back in time.  I stepped out of the restroom and didn’t hear the video or the special song that was set to play before I taught.  Uh oh.  

Opening the auditorium doors, I saw Dense on the platform trying to cover for me.  

I should have let her have the stage! 

I felt like Doja Cat.   ​​When Doja Cat and SZA won the Grammy in 2022 for Best Pop Duo Performance for “Kiss Me More,” Doja nearly missed it. The star was in the middle of a bathroom visit when her name was called and she barely made it to the stage before it was time to get to the next category. 

When nature calls you, you listen, even if it means missing your very first Grammy win or a sermon.  

The folks that gathered at The Venues Church Sunday totally understood.  

The Venues is a safe place to be human.  To be you.   

It was good for a laugh.  

The lesson?  Maybe when Nature, when God, when Love calls, we listen. 

When creation speaks, we listen. When others speak, we listen.  

Listening.  Father Rohr writes, “Perhaps one of the most precious and powerful gifts we can give another person is to really listen to them, to listen with quiet, fascinated attention, with our whole being, fully present.”

Listen with an open heart.  No judgment.  Just openness.  

Thank-you Venues community for listening and not judging.