Last night, I was an idiot. Let’s just summarize the story by saying I drank a $9.99 bottle of 2005 Australian wine. This morning I drank a lot of water and had several Tylenol in preparation for church.
Confession is a weekly part of the church service. The pastor gives us a few moments to pray to God before launching into a generic confession for all of us. I never know how to summarize all I’ve done wrong in the brief time we’re given to confess. “God… all of this…”
The assistant pastor knew I had no one to spend Christmas with so he found me an invitation to spend Christmas with a family from church. I don’t know any of them well, but they seem like a nice family. It’ll be weird being the outsider and the “new” guy, but I just want to have somewhere/anywhere to spend the day without wrapping myself in a selfish bubble of self-pity and woefulness.
I also talked to The Pastor’s Daughter after the service today. She invited me to lunch with the pastor’s family. We ate at a nice Mexican restaurant. The pastor’s wife asked a lot of intriguing questions.
“Is your family full of love and grace?”
Yes, yes they are, and I realize it more every year that passes by. And that’s why I miss them so much this Christmas.
The lunch went fairly well other than feeling awkward and out of place. It might have to do with being asked questions about love and grace when I sat there thinking about how much love and grace I was being shown despite the wickedness in my life. Going from Saturday night wine-drinking binge to lunch with the pastor is a strange transition.
Then again, everyone who passes into Christ’s love ultimately undergoes the same transition.
Well, something to think about. I want to straighten things out, but it’s hard.
Merry Christmas to you all and thanks for reading my glass-half-full musings.
Update: Irony of irony. From my landlord for Christmas I did receive a bottle of wine and some Guylian dark belgian chocolates. I’m thankful for the chocolates.