Is It Mocking Bird or Bishop?

I learned an extremely valuable lesson the other day. I am still not sure if it was a lesson on blasphemy or on the simple power of the Bishop, but whatever it was, I learned it.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon wrapping up a nice long New Years vacation at my family’s home on Soldier Creek. I had spent the past few days laughing, eating and drinking my hearts content with my parents and friends I hardly get to see. Before heading back to reality, a friend of mine and I decide to head to church for a little cleansing.

I love our church down here. From the inside it looks as though four double wide trailers have been welded together, but the community and the support of the church is more pleasing than any other church I have been to. Little did we know today was a big day for our little Episcatrailer. The Bishop was there to present the Bishop’s pins to families of those who are no longer with us, and he also gave the sermon for the day. I hate to tell you I cannot remember one point he made while preaching, but he sure caught my attention with the vocal explosions he frequently made.

After the sermon was over the Bishop walked over to the last row where my friend and I were standing. He shook my friend’s hand and greeted him with an offering of peace, which my friend returned. Then he slipped his hand in mine as I offered him peace myself. The Bishop looked at me with a half cocked smile and responded, “How long?” um, huh? I was in a bit of confused shock so I asked what he meant by that, and he simply laughed and moved on. Seriously? Did the Bishop just laugh at me? Did he just make a joke about me to my face? Was it an inappropriate comment, or was it just a miscommunication?

After that experience all I wanted to do was get out of that church before the Bishop had another chance to mock me publicly! Little did I know you can run from the higher being, but you cannot hide! The rest of my day was filled with an unfortunate sequence of events. It all started with me spending an hour trying to get a cat out of a tree, continued with my stupidity when I left my wallet at a Starbucks in Pensacola, not even noticing it until I was a good 45 minutes away. I had to race back to Pensacola praying my wallet was still there, because I did not have any other means of money or gas! Once I finally got the wallet back and into the outskirts of Montgomery after six hours in the car, my phone charger started smoking!!! I mean the thing was about to catch on fire! I was able to disconnect it and throw it out the window while driving before it blew up my whole existence.

Needless to say, if a religious figure ever comes to bless you, please, just smile and do not question it. Even if it sounds a little funny, just go with it. I do not actually believe I was being “punished”, but I do wish I knew what he meant by “how long?