What e'er thou art, act well thy part.

I did this once, too. It only worked for a while.

You, sir, are on a roll today.

DId you?

I have thought about this quite a few times. Especially when I caught wind of my last calling. But when I got in there and looked at our good bishop who dedicates so much of his time to service, I just couldn't look at him and claim that I didn't have the time. And of course, he gives me the old "I just can't think of anyone else who could do this..." guilt-trip-inducing line. Then again, I would probably resort to such tricks if I were in his shoes trying to staff a ward.

Indy, you seem to be really sensitive about the "mullah" label. But then you go and post bullshit like this. Go ahead and be honest. Embrace your mullah-ism.

One must ask...

I've tried this.
 

I'm not particularly social at church, and I never attend activities. I have, unfortunately, volunteered to pick up chairs and go to the local church welfare farm.

After I told my dad about the calling (and how I had hoped to remain just a EQ teacher in the ward we have just recently moved into), he shed some light on the subject. Being a young professional virtually forces you into more responsible callings, it's unavoidable. In my last ward, I was called into the Stake Young Men's presidency. At stake meetings with the leadership I was the youngest guy there by probably around 10 years. A guy at my work got called into the bishopric at the age of 31 last year (one year older than me). Another guy at work who's in his late 30s who joined the firm last year was a bishop at the ward he just moved out of.

This has convinced me that I need to pick the brain of my wife's boss, figure out the secret. Unfortunately, I think that it might be the wife. Apparently the wife of my wife's boss has some issues with depression and their marriage hasn't been particularly close because of these issues. My wife is the model of female emotional stability and is an exceptionally kind-hearted person.

So, given this suspicion I won't be picking his brain to find out the secret.

With all this said, I realize that EQ presidency is NOT a big calling and fairly standard for a guy of my age. But the ward I'm in is likely to split when a new building opens up in January. Fortunately, I live in the area of the ward with almost all the leadership.

I once asked to be released from a leaderwship type calling when I entered what I now call my SU phase or, in lennon-esque terms, my lost decade. At the time, I didn't feel like I could honestly do what I needed to do as a leader. THe bishop reluctantly agreed and I sort of went off on a voyage of self-discovery and meditative consideration (this part is not a joke). Eventually I came back to the gopsel, but I decided not to tell anyone hoping to avoid the whole calling problem. I never wore suits. I sat in the back. I tried to aovid contact. The whole drill. So they made me cub master, and that just sort of snowballed. Not to be too cute about it, but the Lord will find you if he wants to.

LOL. Sense of humor, indeed.