This Is Why You Don’t Goof With Your Alarm on A Saturday Night

I fiddled with the clock app on my phone Saturday night, thinking that it would be cool if I could set it to wake me up with the Stranger Things theme, but it didn’t work and my alarm never went off. I woke up a full three hours and 19 minutes later than I’d intended.

I leapt from bed and sprinted into clothes and out the door for a frantic beginning to a full day during which a mental chorus of “irresponsible!” and “unprofessional!” and “fraud!” would bellow through the morning and coo all afternoon. I never got my head right. Everything I looked at disintegrated and everything I touched crumbled.

But a small evening gathering of youth leaders literally saved the day. To break bread with the church folk who care the most about accompanying young people in all the ways we try to do that set me right. My off-the-cuff expression of gratitude to them was nearly choked off by emotion mere seconds after it had begun. It’s the part of that day I will cling to.

Some of us need the company of our people to feel right. I’m learning that the best way to get out of my head is to get in a room with people who care about the things I care about.