Encouragement in Little Things

This past Sunday I was in my usual post running computer media. About 3 minutes into his sermon, Steve's microphone began to crackle and within a couple of minutes it became very clear it wasn't going to stop. I looked over the crowd and wondered if anyone was going to go back and check the sound board. Our usual sound guy was out but surely someone could try something, right? Nope. I was fairly disgusted.

I really didn't want to get up and parade myself in front of the entire place but clearly it had to be done. So I got up. Flip-flop-flip-flop-flip-flop....all the way to the back (can you guess the kind of shoes I had on?). I could feel the eyes on me as I went but forced myself to look straight ahead, mostly so they wouldn't catch me giving them "the look". I don't know much about the sound stuff, most obvious because I just called it "stuff", but I tried what I did know and nothing worked. The problem grew worse but Steve kept going. That's what good Marines do. They don't stop and dance around, they just plow through, focused on the mission. While concentrating on what I was doing I could hear him vaguely in the back of my mind and knew the scripture I had up there was no longer what he was on. But I couldn't run back and forth and do it all so I put it out of my mind and kept going.

Finally, I grabbed a battery from the box, desperately hoping it was the microphone battery in the pack he had on. I walked back up to the front, seriously having considered removing my shoes first but decided it would look silly to carry them as I went. Flip-flop-flip-flop-flip-flop....all the way to the front where I laid a battery on the platform. I was so concerned with making as little spectacle of myself as possible I hadn't even noticed Christina (she and her husband are currently leading worship) had hopped up to my post and was keeping in line with Steve on the sermon points and scriptures.

I was then incredibly jazzed. I just backed up to the first row, sat down, grabbed her Bible and enjoyed being able to sit and listen to a sermon. It may sound silly but it was such an encouraging sign that someone saw a need, jumped in without being asked, and finished the job. Yes, progress is being made.

"It's the little things," I tell myself, "the little things."

(As an aside, it WAS the battery. He replaced it, making a joke about the greatness of technology as he did so and we were set.)