March 12 – “Someone’s inside my head”

You know how they say in athletics, “Don’t let your opponent get inside your head”?  I had a “someone’s inside my head” experience yesterday.  It started out simple enough.  I worked on my usual Monday array of sermon preparations, bill paying, birthday and wedding anniversary card sending, website updating, and church FaceBook page editing.  All quite typical for a Monday.

Then I headed out for the errand running segment of the day.  Easy enough.  Quick stop at the bank to make a deposit.  To the post office to drop off a baby gift to be mailed to somewhere in New Jersey, I think.  Then on to the hospital to check on my uncle and Baby Haisley.  Uncle Jerry didn’t look so good.  He had a tube in his nose running somewhere, and with the few words he managed to speak he said he was still being filled up with antibiotics.  He also told me his son Jer is supposed to get into town today some time, so I was pleased to hear that.  When I went by to check on Haisley, Mom and Dad were not there, and the desk attendant was very reluctant to let me go back even as a pastor, so I eased her mind and left.  Prayers work just as well long-distance.  God is pretty good about that.  Maybe I’ll make it on the list some day.

The final item on my list was a stop at WalMart on the way home.  As I’ve said many times before, this is Galveston so much of what you do is probably going to end up in a trip to WalMart.  This time I only had three items on my list: moist wipes, dog food, and Calritin-D.  I pulled into a parking spot in the Spring Break tourist-laden parking lot.  I exited the car and approached an errant shopping cart.  And just as I reached out to claim the cart for my own use, the voice came.  It wasn’t still or small, either.  It was a loud, resounding, clattering voice located somewhere inside my head.  I can still hear it ringing, echoing, bouncing around from ear to ear even as I remember it now.  It was the voice of … well, it was Chris, to be sure.  As if she was standing right beside me.  Over and over again it came.  The same admonition.  “Don’t you dare ever buy Claritin-D without a coupon.”  And of course … I had no coupon. 

Now it’s not like this was the first time it had happened that I forgot a coupon.  It happens all the time.  Obviously.  Hence the reprimand, the rebuke, the warning, the incessant voice in my head.  “Don’t you dare …”  “Ever …”  I actually thought I could laugh it off, make the purchase and proclaim my victory over the voices.  Silly me.  Oh, I made sure that Chris knew I had succumbed to her internal directions, and I assured her I would make the return trip.  In fact, guess what is on my docket for today after the meeting I have with a family about a funeral?  And guess what is already safely tucked away inside my pocket calendar?  Answers to the quiz:  WalMart.  Check.  And Coupon.  Double check.

Psalms 71:6 says, “From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb.  I will ever praise you.”

Father, I can’t say I have relied on you since birth, but I sure do now.  Amen.