Spurting and Non-Spurting. Welcome To My Life

Can you say nervous?

Well, that's just how our little family is feeling at the moment. In about twenty-four hours, we will pack up ourselves and our stuff (and maybe even a certain shopping purse!) and we will point our vehicle in the direction of Manteo. In the direction of our future. In the direction of a whole new way of life.






Much to my happiness, we will be staying at the same lovely hotel we were at when we went for our interview. I just adore staying at hotels that we could never afford on our own. (Actually, the church gets a special rate, so that's good.)

This is the view from our room.

You may remember my "bangs fiasco" of a few days ago? And how I was hoping they would have grown out a bit by the time we went back to Manteo?

Well, I am here to report to you that my bangs have grown about one half of one percentage of a centimeter times a nanosecond squared. (And here you thought I wasn't good at math!)

So I shall make my lovely appearance at Manteo with a lopsided hairline, which will not serve to fill me with all manner of confidence.

And what I didn't mention in the earlier "bangs post" was that I also had the stylist put in a few highlights near my face to help me look a bit more "perky." Well, as it turns out, the highlights were too bright and sort of unnatural looking, so I've been stressing out over those, too. This afternoon, I'm going to go in and have some "toner" applied to them and hope for the best.

Hmmm. Maybe I could have some "toner" applied to my hips and thighs while I'm at it, and "tone" those at the same time. GREAT idea!

Since I haven't bought any new clothes in a while, I went out yesterday and shopped a little bit. (While carrying my shopping purse, of course.) The more I tried things on, the more convinced I was that the "hip toner" was really going to be a necessary thing. Who knew that chocolate chips cookies went straight to that area of the body?

Their instructions? Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Just make a bee-line for the hip line.

Sigh.

Steve has been on the phone quite a bit this week with the church's drummer who we'll be working with this weekend. Steve was delighted to find out that the drummer (also named Steve) used to play in rock and roll bands in college, too. I have no doubt that the two of them will have a great deal of fun together!

As a rule, most pastoral candidates just go in, meet the folks, and preach a sermon; it adds a whole new dimension to also meet with the music people and run a rehearsal in preparation for playing together for the service. We're nervous and I'm sure they're nervous, too!

It's all very much like a first date that is filled with the hope that the meeting will lead to a happy marriage. There is a whole lot of anticipation, pressure, excitement and joy involved in the process.

As I mentioned earlier, tomorrow night we'll meet with the leaders (and spouses) in the church--there will be about forty people altogether. Steve and I are trying to memorize most of the names (and their positions) before we get there, although they will be wearing name tags, which will be quite helpful for our little ol' middle-aged brains.

With all the busyness and the business of candidating for this pastoral position, we never want to lose sight of the privilege it is to get to be pastors. Pastors are invited into the lives of people at their most vulnerable times; they get to be with them in moments of incredible joy and immense sadness.

Being a pastor requires flexibility, diplomacy, wisdom, love, tact, firmness, compassion, a sense of humor, and a secure self esteem; in essence, it requires a tough skin and a tender heart. The bottom line, though, is that being a pastor means getting the chance to make a difference in peoples' lives and we're excited about the possible opportunity to do that in Manteo.

I'll keep you posted as we go along and will definitely post Sunday night after the vote.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for us as we make our way through this exciting, scary, exhilarating, challenging, tiring, fun, and life changing weekend.

(And maybe we could even join together our wishful thoughts in the hopes that my bangs would suddenly go through a growth spurt. And that my hips would go through a growth non-spurt. Spurting and non-spurting. Hips and bangs. Welcome to my life.)