Prepare to be Embarrassed

So....... You know how you cringe for someone when you see that she has walked confidently down the aisle, stepped briskly to the podium, smiled broadly, and started her presentation with no idea that a three foot piece of toilet paper is stuck to her shoe?

Or a sharply dressed teacher is introduced.  He springs toward the right side of the pulpit, deposits his Bible and Ipad while simultaneously striking a casual, non-threatening stance with one hand in his pants pocket.  You are the first to notice - his pants are unzipped. 

Yeah, you know the moment.  You're probably cringing right now just remembering the time it happened to you.

You're immediately conflicted about how you can possibly notify them of the problem without alerting the entire room.  How can you spare this poor soul the embarrassment that is sure to follow their discovery?!

Well, cover your faces.  Brace your caring hearts.  Prepare to be embarrassed on behalf of another poor soul.

It happened yesterday at lunch.  Frank and I were talking with dear friends after church.  As we neared the end of our meal together, he reached over to put his hand on my back.  And that's when it hit me.  My dress was unzipped!

What?!!  Yes, friends.  The pastor's wife attended church with her dress unzipped from the waist up.

Everyone continued talking around me.  But I did a quick mental run through of the previous six hours of my life.  And no one knew why I was suddenly blushing.

At 7:05 A.M., I had dashed into Kristin's room to borrow a shrug.  I'd intended to have her finish the zipping process then.  But somehow on the run from my room to hers, I forgot that small tidbit of information.

I threw on her shrug and out the door we went.

The hour and a half before first service begins is a flurry of activity for our team.  Everyone has their assignment and after we pray, it's all hands on deck!

I moved quickly to cover my tasks; all the while greeting, hugging, smiling, listening intently.  No wonder it didn't seem hot to me - I had plenty of ventilation! 

Surely someone in one of the two services looked at me standing there on the front row and wondered, "Why does the back of Sheri's dress look so odd?"

My tasks also involved going to the platform (not once, but twice) to lead in prayer, make a few announcements, call for the ushers to receive the offering.

The entire band and worship team had a perfect view of my back.  But they're pretty focused; they must not have noticed.  Or if they did notice, by the time service ended they had forgotten it.

And on I went, oblivious to the fact that I was single-handedly establishing a new clothing trend!

Aaaagggghhhhh!!!!  You gotta smile!  Nothing else to do.

As I thought back on it later, I was so thankful for the shrug that had served to cover my rather serious faux pas.  And I realized that the shrug perfectly represents God's grace in our lives.

Our mistakes can be pretty glaring at times.  But when we walk with the Father, He loving drapes us with His grace until we can deal with the problem.

Oh, what a good Friend He is!!