Goin' to the chapel... eventually.

I was late to church yesterday. Only by a few minutes; It was 8:05 when I walked in the door for the 8:00 service. Not bad, for a parishioner. Not good, for the pastor.

I'm accustomed to being in Monticello shortly after 7:00 each morning. I open the doors, program the music into the Synthia, lay out the bulletins and mark the readings. Then I (hopefully) have time to go over my sermon, and to pray in the silence, before people begin to show up for worship.

Not this time.

Some poor soul rolled an SUV, leaving it lying on its back, tires in the air. Traffic was naturally at a standstill until the driver was removed and taken away in an ambulance, and the vehicle removed from the road-- about 45 minutes, all told. I didn't realize there was a problem, of course, until I pulled to a stop-- just south of an exit, so I couldn't get off and go around.

I called my Sr. Warden. Spoke to his wife, actually, and let her know that I'd be behind schedule, and why. She was sympathetic, and promised to go early, to open the place up.

And then I sat there, stuck with dozens of other vehicles in a two-lane parking lot on I-65. The area around Exit 240 is not an especially scenic place. There's a truck stop: "The Flying J." A couple of gas stations. An Adult Superstore (at least, that's what the sign said. The building didn't look that big to me). And cornfields, of course, stretching back to trees at the horizon.

I put some music in the CD player. One I burned at home, labeled Theology: some Christian music, some secular, it's a mix of things that are important to me, for one reason or another. Stuff to think and pray by. So that's what I did, while I waited for the road to clear.

I did finally make it to church, as I said, only a few minutes late. Slapped the music into Synthia, and led the congregation in Morning Prayer. And it was good.

Then I made the drive home-- uneventful, this time-- and took a nice, long nap.

I guess you could call my time on the highway a sort of enforced contemplative moment. After the last couple days, I think I'd call it a gift.