Hello all:
I was talking to Paul Steele and he told me I should write a post about today from my perspective, so hear we go:
Today was a very interesting day. It seemed like it wasn't just your normal day. No, really it didn't. One reason I could tell something was up was the number of people reminding me to stay in the auditorium during worship and announcements. I think the total number of people was 8. After about 5 it started getting suspicious. It started last night when I got an e-mail from Allyson Hughes who does some of the admin stuff for the Tech team:
Hey, Matthew!
I know that sometimes you guys switch the schedule around to fit you guys better. Can you let me know who is running recording/duplication this Sunday? David Cochran's on the schedule, but I'm not sure. Matthew [Lindsey] needs to know.
Thanks!
Allyson
Hey Allyson,
Thanks for checking up on us. I will be the one doing
Recording/Duplicating on Sunday. David and I switched
last week and this week b/c of New Attitude.
Thanks,
Matthew Reynolds
Totally cool. Can you make sure that you're out in the auditorium during announcements?
Thanks,
Allyson
So, yeah after that I think David Cochran got confused on the whole thing. They called him because he was the one originally scheduled for today. They told him that if I was back there helping out to make sure I got in the auditorium during announcements. Today he came up to me and said "If you see Matthew Lindsey walking around out here near announcements, can you make sure he gets in the auditorium, they are secretly honoring him today."
Then, later Matthew Lindsey saw me making cd's before worship and wanted to make sure I didn't miss any of worship or annoucements because I was serving. Joe Hamilton also reminded me not to miss worship or the announcements
During worship it got a little more confusing. I had to run back to the lobby to do something with the cd duplicator. Another time I had to go and turn on the audio and video for the White Oak Room. Both times Joe gave me a weird look like "why won't you stay in the auditorium?" because it was getting close to the end of worship.
Also during worship, my dad came over to me in the back and told me that Matt Bowman was being honored today and that I should stay in for that. He left and I thought, "right, Matthew Lindsey and Matthew Bowman both being honored at the same time, I don't think that's just a coincidence."
When you put it all together: the constant reminders to stay in the auditorium, the honoring of too many Matthews, and the weird looks from Joe; it got a little suspicious. My pride even jumped in and said, "hey, maybe your getting honored today" It was all just too weird.
Then, the announcements came. When Mr. Varnedoe started out by saying, "I want someone to come to the stage. I know he's not going to like it this way." I thought, "well, it's obviously someone humble, it must not be me. I think it may be Matthew Lindsey, he's humble. But there's no way it's me now."
Well, I was wrong. It was a little freaky walking all the way from the back to the stage. Nobody knew what was going on and everyone kept on staring at me as I walked past. Mrs Elledge told me afterwards, "Mrs Cahill was sitting next to me and leaned over and said, ' Is he getting married?"
I got to the stage and exclaimed, "wow, that's a ton of people!" (that's the reason Mr. Varnedoe laughed.) When he was speaking I didn't know what to do: "do I look around at the congregation?, do I look at Mr. Varnedoe? do I look at my parents? do I look at Paul in the lighting booth? why is Matthew Lindsey coming towards me with a black bag in his hands? man, it feels like I'm going to be sacrificed walking up these steps."
"Then a standing ovation? Why in the world are they doing that? Is there someone behind me we're honoring too? I wonder if they're doing the VFC Clap?"
I was really was a blessing to have my church doing that. I really did feel God's pleasure during that moment. It was pretty amazing. Mr. Varnedoe was right though, it's all because God has radically transformed my life. 3 years ago, before I was saved, this would have never been possible. It's all because of God's grace in my life. Therefore, God gets all the glory. It's work in my life that makes all this possible and it's His Church that I get to serve in.
Thank you all for glorifying God by honoring one of His servants. I am deeply affected.
