Shoving Annie - the Postscript

The company of bell-ringers in my home town have a long-standing practice of going away for a weekend in the spring, to visit and ring the bells at churches in a selected area and enjoy each other’s company in a comfortable hotel.  Sometimes the support for this expedition is greater than at others.  This year we struggled to make the minimum requirements for the group rate at the hotel; we needed just one more to qualify.  I think it was the husband of Dianne, our social secretary, who pointed out that the cheapest strategy to overcome the problem would be to double-up one of the single bookings and share the small addition to the overall cost.  This we did, and thus had an ‘empty bed’.

Two weeks before the event, at our regular practice evening, an informal draw was made to see who should occupy the double room instead of a single: a draw which I was lucky enough to win.  The next day, Dianne had to submit the rooming list to the hotel; she texted me as I was driving to ask what name I would prefer for my 'room-mate'. As I wondered about this, the situation became more real and I considered the possible problem of explaining this person's absence.  I replied, ‘call my wife Hilary – I can easily say she couldn’t make it’.

At that time the text for the blog here called 'Shoving Annie' was already almost complete; that same evening, having been ‘married on the motorway’, as it were, I opened the file to review what I’d written.  As you will see, that blog attacked people who are playing a part, trying to appear something they're not... involved in essence, in deception.  As I read through it again, it hit me that what I had engaged in here, however harmless it might have been, was ... in essence, deception.

I felt a bit like King David confronted by Nathan, post-Bathsheba. I'm sure you’re familiar with the story, but if not you'll find it in II Samuel ch. 12. David got annoyed with the man Nathan told him about; then Nathan pointed out that he had, in effect, condemned himself over his treatment of Uriah.  My draft article now condemned me.

In my subsequent prayers I asked for wisdom concerning what I should do or say. First, how was I to explain the absence of the wife I'd created to occupy the half-empty double room – a challenge that, in the event, was never posed – then, how should I deal with the spiritual situation in which I now found myself?  I decided that to honour my forgiving Lord, I must use this incident as a basis for teaching.  Phase one was a leaflet that I hastily prepared, and handed to all my colleagues at the start of the weekend containing, basically, what you are reading here; this is phase two.

The lesson I’ve learned here is straightforward. We should all be aware just how easy it can be to drift into sin.