Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: GET COLD FEET (10/12/17)
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TITLE: What Was I Thinking? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Wanda Draus
10/19/17 -
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I had just volunteered to be on the women’s ministry team. At the team’s kick-off meeting we planned the events for the following year. A bible study and of course,the annual beloved Christmas banquet.
Committees were chosen for the Christmas banquet; theme,restaurant, menu, decorations, and speaker. As with many small churches money was tight. Definitely enough talented women for decorations but actually non-existent funds for a speaker.
As we continued to rise above the clouds I was still pondering the question, what was I thinking?
I remember hearing one of the women look at me and say, “Do you think you can speak at our event?” As the flight attendant was handing me a cup of tea, it was all coming back. I remembered possibly having an out of body experience because I definitely could hear myself saying, sure! Not, let me pray about it and get back to you or let’s see if we can charge more for the ticket and get a professional speaker. No, I said, sure!
You know how it sounds good at the time, yes, I’ll throw a party for 50 people even though I only have room for 20. What was I thinking? How it sounds good that you will bake a dozen cupcakes for each one of your children for a school bake sale and you have five kids. What was I thinking?
That’s when it struck me somewhere between the plane’s wheels lowering for landing and getting my bags to disembark for our four day getaway, I would simply tell the Christmas committee I could no longer speak at the event.
I would just have to plan another getaway the night of the event. There was still enough time for us to look for someone else more qualified than I to speak. With that settled in my mind I could enjoy our little mini vacation with my husband and friends.
The next morning with a cup of hot tea in hand and shuffling out to the balcony to watch the beautiful sunrise over the ocean my heart was troubled. I tried to convince the Lord that I’m better working behind the scenes. I’m a server, that’s my gift Lord, not a speaker.
As I continued my heart to heart talk, I reminded the Lord, I have no idea what to say. I felt the Lord had listened, it was all good and then I opened my bible for devotion.
Yes, you guessed it, the very first words I read, “now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” Exodus 4:12 (NIV).
Whoa! Really? Just like the Lord to pull something like this.
I would love to say all my trepidation went away but it didn’t. I went over and over the speech. The night of the event, I was still nervous as I looked around the beautifully decorated room with bright red poinsettias made into a Christmas tree and tiny lights all through the dining area with all the women dressed up in their Christmas best.
When they introduced me and I walked on the dais my cold feet had now turned into sweaty palms and racing heartbeat. A silence came over the room as we prayed for the Holy Spirit’s presence.
The Lord did show up and give me the words to speak and the calmness of heart to deliver His message. Half way through I noticed the servers standing by the kitchen listening to every word the Lord had laid on my heart.
I ended with a poem that I had written to tie up all that the Lord had laid on my heart and I titled it the same as the speech, “More than a Stable.”
What was I thinking?” I wasn’t. I was letting the Lord lead.
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Penny
I can relate to how difficult it is to give a speech to a room full of people.