Maybe it's Not about me...

I’m not sure that starting a story with, “I was in a business meeting,” is very riveting, but here goes. I was in a business meeting last night for all the churches and pastors in Utah in our denomination.  My friend and staff member, Abby, was on my left.  Daran was on my right.  We have gone to many of these together over the years, but this year something had changed.  Abby got licensed with our denomination last year, and I got ordained.  If you have read my story https://www.everycampusutah.com/blog/2018/11/16/the-mundane-becomes-eternal, you know that this is a big deal in that I have avoided the limelight, including titles and such, in an effort to guard my heart. 

Abby and I were armed with our crisp little blue ballot sheets and pens.  This was her first time voting, but not mine.  I actually did not even know what offices we were voting for.  The office of sectional presbyter came up.  I would tell you what all that office entails, but I don’t really know.  Abby looked at me and asked if she could put my name down.  She wanted a woman’s name on the ballot.  I thought for a second, and realized that I had just become eligible because of my recent ordination.  The two of us could not think of another ordained woman that she could write down, so I told her she could.  In all honesty, I had no intention or hope of being elected.  Let’s just say that I pretty quickly became elected as the sectional presbyter.  

Normally, when someone gets elected to an office in these meetings, we give a little round of applause.  Sometimes I think the applause is simply to celebrate that an election has been made, and therefore dinner is closer at hand.  But this time, the applause was a little louder.  As I stood up to give my completely off-the-cuff “acceptance speech," our superintendent announced that I was the first woman presbyter for our district of Colorado and Utah.  Oh…this might be a big deal.  As we continued the business meeting, I started immediately receiving congratulatory e-mails and fb messages from our district office in Colorado.  After the meeting was over, I was bombarded with joy-filled congratulations and hugs and one, “You are my hero!”  HaHa!

One of the congratulatory conversations stood out to me.  I was talking to one of our district officials. He explained that recently he had a conversation with some of the ordained ladies at the district office.  They were all discussing when a woman would be elected as sectional presbyter.  Why hadn’t it happened yet?  What’s it going to take?  They concluded with the words, “It has to happen soon, right?”

So it happened and I “happened” to be the one.  Freshly ordained and freshly elected.  I had this thought as I asked the Lord, “Why me?  You know my lifelong battle with pride, Lord.”  His answer this morning was beautifully eloquent, “Maybe, it’s not about you.”  So I considered that and pondered it.  Maybe it’s about those ladies gathered in the office knowing that the mold had to be broken or perhaps reshaped.  Maybe it’s to help ladies think outside of the box in what they could be called to do.  Maybe it’s the Lord creating greater diversity amongst our decision makers and leaders.  I’m really not sure what the core reason is, but this morning I’m supremely convinced that it is not about me.