"Stupid, that was stupid...

...no one would say that that was smart..."

Anyone remember that song?

(Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi)

Easter weekend services commenced last night; we had our first of 7 services at 7 PM.  It continued today at 4 PM and 6 PM and, after the choir warmup before the earlier service, we were encouraged to spend some time praying for the service.

So I decided I'd walk through the auditorium, up and down some of the rows, and pray.  It's a common thing to do, nothing unusual about it.  The band was still working through one of the songs, so the music was cranked as I walked.

Then, as I came down one of the chair rows towards the wall, I noticed some response cards on the floor.  They'd obviously fallen off the 3 1/2-foot sub woofer speaker that was backed up against the wall, blasting away facing the platform, and, without really thinking, I crouched down and leaned over in front of the speaker to pick them up.

Y'all.  I put my upper chest and head...and left ear...about 6" away from a cranked and blasting sub woofer.

The first thing I noticed was the throb in my chest that almost took my breath, so I quickly picked up the cards and put them back where they came from.

Stupid.  Stupid stupid stupid stupid.

After I stood up,  I noticed the odd feeling in my ear. Not exactly pain...but not good.

I went back into the choir room just as our corporate prayer time started and joined in, still feeling...odd.  When we finished, I decided the smart thing to do would be to get some prayer warriors on my side, so I grabbed a handful of the choir ladies and told them my story.

And they prayed for my ear.

Yeah, I felt foolish.  But that was the ONLY thing I could do for my ear at that point...and just after that we went out for the first service worship.  My ear still felt...odd...but as the music cranked up it actually began to hurt, just a little.

So after the choir left the platform I went looking for a cotton ball, but there were none anywhere around. I finally tore a bit of tissue to stuff loosely in that ear before second service; not enough to affect my singing, I hoped, but something to cut the sound coming through.  Second service worship sounded to me like listening to music through blown speakers...all splatty with a tinny ring.

I have tried to keep very quiet this evening and, while I still have a very slight dull earache, the splatty has gone; I don't have any unusual ringing, so I am hopeful that I haven't permanently damaged it.

And I'm grateful to my friends who prayed that very thing over me.

But, wow, what a crazy thing to do....