Monday, Monday

The last two Mondays at the office have started off in ways that have made me consider getting back in the car, driving home, and climbing back into bed. I seriously could not believe that after last week, a moment like that happened again today! In the deep discomfort of the moments, though, there have been unexpected gifts, laughter, and moments of humility that God brings. Humility, mind you; not humiliation. Actually, humility from God makes me smile, kind of shy and giggly-like, 'cause I feel his love and presence in it, like someone whispering to me, with a smile, real close, "See, Honey? I got it under control. No need to fret so much, Sweetie. P.S. You're kinda cute when you get all squirmy like that and you know you can't fix things yourself."

Keep in mind here, the natural person I am can't stand looking unprepared or stupid (I almost typed foolish, but, no, I mean stupid--sorry Mom). When I don't look like I know what I am doing, unless I have p-l-e-n-t-y of time to explain myself and present my case, I feel stupid.

Monday #1: I arrive at 8:00 AM, my phone rings at 8:30 AM, and it's two colleagues calling from the Midwest, where they have flown to meet with significant financial donors. They need some information I don't have and they need it in 30 minutes. Not only do I not have it, there is an awkward moment of misunderstanding regarding what I feel I can give them versus what they want, which seems to reflect an underlying sense of confusion about goals and results that need to be communicated...to people in 30 minutes. And the information they need...is with a colleague in Southeast Asia. Can you say, "14-hour time difference"?

I call overseas. The person I need is unavailable, asleep and exhausted, but his kind wife lets me know I can call at 5:00 PM my time and try to catch him in a morning window after he has been part of a huge meeting the day before and before he does a presentation to hundreds of pastors. Not only will I not be able to provide the people who called me with what they need when they want it, not only have we had a misunderstanding, but I now have to call and interrupt the plans of someone else later in the day, and I can't promise that he'll have the information these other folks want since we still have the confusion about what needs to be gathered and reported. But there's the high potential to make him feel awkward and confused like I was in the morning, create a new misunderstanding, and all just before his presentation. And, hey, now I get to stew in the anticipation of the fun all day!

Great.

Monday #2: I come in the door this morning before 7:30 AM. I am on our committee that helps plan our weekly chapels. We have a special chapel today (normally Wednesdays), with a special guest speaker. I spent the last month and a half arranging it, connecting with a representative of the speaker, finally connecting with the speaker himself, confirming his arrival, letting him know what audio/visual capacities we have for his presentation, getting a check cut for an honorarium, filling out forms for him with details for his ministry and planning, etc. We are meeting this morning at 7:30 AM so we can get him set up with everything for an 8:00 AM start. I am a good girl; I know that you get the speaker there with enough time for the audio/visual guy to feel comfortable running sound and projector checks and all that good stuff.

First foreboding moment: last Friday evening when I realize I have forgotten to send a reminder to our staff about this special, atypical-day, chapel. I send an email to all staff at like 6:00 PM, praying everyone will pop into the office Monday, open their email, and hop immediately over to our chapel room. I pray about it during the weekend, as well as praying for the speaker and the presentation and the audience and me...I have to introduce and start the service.

Second foreboding moment: this morning, I get there on time, drop my stuff in my cube, grab my name tag, and head back to the front entrance of the building to meet my arrivals. Literally, as I am striding the hall toward the front desk, it dawns on me that I... never... told.... our.... A/V..... guy..... that...... someone...... was....... coming....... to........ speak........ today. Oh. My. Gosh.

We have a speaker arriving, I have people headed into chapel in 30 minutes (apparently my new doomsday time window), and I have told no one that I need the projector and microphones set up and a table ready for him to display his ministry materials. "Ugh," doesn't begin to cover it.

I head to the front desk, manned for the moment by our base operations manager, the boss of the A/V dude. Also sitting there is the college-age son of another colleague who is waiting to be picked up to go to his work, and walking in the door at that moment is another colleague who is on the planning committee with me. I grab him by the arm and say, "You have to stay here. Ken is about to kill me." All three men stare at me while I spew and apologize, completely wide-eyed and white-faced, that I totally forgot to let anyone know about any technical needs for chapel on this day. HELP!

College-age kid gets up and says,"I'll go get the projector going." Ken, the boss, smiles at me and says, "Yeah, we'll get it. You're face looked so awful I thought you were going to tell me someone had broken into the office and stolen everything off your desk." I said, "That would not have been nearly as bad! This is like forgetting to put on pants! Who does this?"

So, off people scamper to rescue my poor planning, joined very shortly by the actual A/V guy, who comes in the front door grinning at my horrified face, chuckling about how he saw the email about chapel that morning and wondered if someone had forgotten to tell him something...

Staff are now coming through the front doors consistently, filling the building, and curious to find me at the desk greeting them all...not normal. I am smiling big, saying, "See you at chapel at 8:00!" like it's completely typical. They smile back, brows a little perplexed, "There's chapel this morning?" "Oh yes!" says I, "You'll see all about it in your inbox...scurry, scurry, scurry!"

People continue to stream in. But guess who is NOT streaming in? That's right...my guest speaker! By now, all I can think about is I have people hustling to be at chapel at the last minute, people hustling to set up for chapel at the last minute and there will be nothing going on after all. Good heavens.

The people who know me best are stopping in their tracks the moment they come in the door: "You look awful. What did you do?" One knows right away that I want to go home and go back to bed and start again. I begin nominating people as they come in the door: "You there, you know any Vaudeville stuff? Hey, you, you wanna sing this morning? Mister, you know any cool magic tricks?"

No kidding...the speaker arrives at 7:55 AM. He's very nice, and I hustle him and his assistants straight into the chapel area, turn him over to the A/V guy to get his microphone and computer hooked up. The room is filling, and people are watching us get set up right then. I have nothing to do but stand in the front of the room and smile at people, hugging to my chest my file folder of well-planned and executed emails that led to today. Well, at least his late arrival allows people to see their email from Friday and get in here...and someone else (the guy I tried to use as a human shield) has sent runners down each side of the complex to make sure people know about chapel this morning. And of course, in the background of all this, the technical stuff is being a headache and they can't get his presentation up on the screen.

Great.

The happy resolutions and unexpected blessings? In our next post...