Staring at the Ceiling

Soooo...I was in full relaxation mode stretched out in a folding chair waiting to listen to our pastor discuss a new year of children's ministry at our church and get my hands on some of the promised ice cream at the end of the meeting. It had been a good Sunday. Services were good, lunch was good, lounging by the pool, again, good. To be honest, though, I was a bit wiped out. Could have been the food, could have been the sun, most likely it was the skipped Sunday nap, but the heavy eyes and yawns had begun a few minutes earlier as I plopped down into the chair. I was a bit early, had a yellow legal pad and a pen, so I was in uncharted ground...prepared and early.
I should have been spiritually and mentally gearing up for the discussions ahead about one of the aspects of Christianity that claims a large part of my heart, leading children to Christ, but I was happy to just be for a moment. Be, and zone out.
WAM! I'm staring at the ceiling. I went from semi-vertical to completely horizontal in a fraction of a second. I had no idea what in the world was going on, but I knew I was looking at the ceiling and it was quiet like a nun had just walked into a second grade class with a ruler.
Let me help you with a bit of situational context...I'm a big fella and the chair I was camped out in was, let's just say, not rated for heavy-duty use. Yep, I collapsed a chair. Now, I have seen this done many, many times on America's Funniest Home Videos and laughed like a hyena, but never had I envisioned myself to be that guy. The chair flattener. And, seriously, it was flat and I was lying on top of it like the pickles on a Big Mac.
Gathering oneself from a situation like the one described can only go one of two ways: a straight-up, red-faced tearful dash out the door, which I considered, or self-deprecating humor. I guess I could have been self-righteous and screamed that I was going to sue everyone involved, but seeing that I was at a church function and I am not particularly litigious this never really gained any purchase in my still shock-recovering brain. From the ground, I heard myself say, "Well, I guess we know who won't be having any ice cream."
Truthfully, being a bigger man since about puberty, this kind of stuff hasn't always been the easiest to deal with. Again, truth-be-told, poking fun at yourself to cover embarrassing situations gets old. But, luckily, I am resilient, and full of confidence, so I keep chugging along. I won't lie, though, going through a situation like that heading into a meeting that I hoped to really get my voice heard on a few different ideas that I felt needed to see some light, got me to thinking about God's plan.
The meeting progressed uneventfully in terms of nothing else collapsing, but I was still a bit embarrassed and contented myself with just listening to the others in our group that would be working with the older elementary kids. I wasn't stewing or anything like that, but, I guess, I was just tempered a bit more than usual. Folks who know me will tell you that I am not afraid to offer an idea or opinion, but as I listened I found myself agreeing with my peers and even heard many of my own thoughts put out on the table by others. The director even made mention of one of my ideas that we had spoken about previously, and it was greeted with a lively, enthusiastic discussion of possibilities.
At the conclusion of the meeting, I was held after by a few friends that wanted to really get down to business on the idea I had put forward without even actually putting it forward. I glanced back at the flattened chair and realized that God had collapsed my normal bull-in-a-china-shop manner so that I could just "be" in his plan and not push my own agenda. Funny how few extra pounds and a cheaply constructed chair were just the tool He needed to get my attention.
"In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5 (NIV)