There were a lot of "what if" scenarios presented to us during the seminary years. What would you do if someone confessed a crime to you? What would you do if a sex offender wanted to join your congregation? What would you do if the women's group FREAKED OUT about the color of the kitchen? (Answer: trick question. We were specifically told to stay away from anything regarding the kitchen.)
But I never heard this one:
What should you do if your sort-of ex-boyfriend (now happily married as, I might add, are you) joins the congregation you are serving, just in time for his lovely wife to give birth to their first child, a child you will be part of baptizing, said baptism to take place, coincidentally, on the weekend which is simultaneously the beginning of your fourth year of trying to get pregnant AND the weekend when it becomes apparent that your first attempt at artificial insemination has failed?
Preferred answer: skip church.
Actual answer: smile, and keep going.
Long weekend ahead, my friends. But, as a wise woman (my mother) told me,
It will all be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
So, I guess it's not the end. Yet.
Not as Digital as I Thought
1 day ago
6 comments:
of all the lousy coincidental timings. I'm sorry about all of that. Well, I guess not about the baptism, but I'm sorry it pokes at your sore places.
you're an associate, right? if ever there was an excuse to have a sick day...
aw shit. sigh. (((((shalom))))
I am so sorry. I remember those feelings, and now I have them in another context. Prayers with you.
Oh, and it's probably way more common, in a general sense, than anyone mentions in seminary. Several years ago friends of mine who had eloped the first time did a do-ver for their 25th anniversary, a complete church wedding with bridal gown and the works, including their three children as attendants. Afterward the pastor told me in some despair that her husband had just walked out on their even longer marriage. I'm not sure that the bride and groom ever grasped the mutual timing of the two events.
And now "the groom" of that anniversary wedding is dead and his wife and daughter have to watch other fathers beam with pride as she and her classmates do their senior year stuff.
The world is full of onlookers concealing whole oceans of pain.
Prayers for strength, grace, and wisdom this weekend.
well put, gannet girl. I have been thinking a lot lately about that last sentence.
oohh. wow. Prayers for God's wings to be shelter and strength for you tomorrow.
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