Volunteering for a Church Talk

I just moved to a new ward a few weeks ago and I am loving the energy there. I don't have a calling yet and last week I was wondering what they might call me to do. As I was lying in bed thinking about it I had this feeling that I would be speaking in church on Christmas Sunday. Well, I thought, I guess that makes sense, I have been writing a book on birth for more than 3 years so I guess I can talk about Jesus' birth.

But they hadn't asked me yet, so I decided not to worry about it till they did. I had another speech to write for the AHA conference. But I kept having the feeling that I needed to volunteer to speak--that I should call up Sean, who is a friend of mine, and in the Bishopric, and tell him that I want to speak on Christmas day.

But you just don't do that. I kept thinking. Besides, what do I have to say?

I ignored the weird urge to volunteer for a talk I wasn't asked to give and went about my business. After my Saturday AHA speech was over I went to our ward Christmas Party that night. As an aside, it was one of the best ward Christmas parties ever. We invited the Mt. Olive Baptist Church to join us (our ward has been tutoring kids at their church for a year). Do I even need to say it was a hoot nanny? Perhaps you can imagine what happens when Mormons and Baptists get together to celebrate Baby Jesus. No? Imagine a road show with some gospel music thrown in and plenty of "Amens!" and a north pole visitor.

At the party, I saw Sean and said, "Hey, who is speaking on Christmas day?" He told me that one person from our ward and one person from the other ward (with whom we are combining with for Christmas), would be speaking. Whew, I thought. They have it covered. I guess I shouldn't have been so presumptuous to think they wanted me to speak.

But the next day during sacrament meeting Sean got up and said, "Everyone knows that I am a very important person and I'm really busy and sometimes I am forgetful. So could you please raise your hand if I asked you to speak next week?" 

No one raised their hand, but guess what? My hand went up. He looked at me as if searching his memory. Nope. Blank. He narrowed his eyes and said. "We'll talk later."

I told him that he must have been sending me telepathic messages. Or God was, while Sean was being forgetful. 

So that is the story of how I volunteered to speak on Christmas day. As of this writing I am still not exactly sure what I will say, but I also think that I have been working on it unconsciously for a few weeks now. Gestating it. And I think it's about to be born tonight.

Apparently I need to be the one to say it, and I'm sure God will let me know what it is. I'm sure I will learn from it. And since Phoebe will be there, I hope she learns something too. I can sometimes get really deep, but I am going to try to write it so that even a 5 year old can understand. Because ultimately, the gospel is really simple. Just like birth is simple. You just have to trust in the Great Love and keep moving forward.