At the party

As an introvert, I am always the first to leave a party. The enjoyment ratio for me in being at parties tends to fall a notch above dental surgery.

But I was invited to a “game night” at the home of a church member and decided to stretch myself. To my mild surprise, they happened to serve wine. Well, Jesus drank wine, so when offered I took a glass, not so much for Jesus as on the theory that I would loosen up.

It took only half a glass and I felt looser, and when the hostess cajoled me to mingle (I was in a corner with a woman I had lunged onto for conversation), I replied, à haute voix, “This is the only person in the room worth talking to.”

I didn’t even think about it, it just came out of my mouth. A man named Todd, who happened to be nursing a drink in a lounge chair in another corner, immediately bellowed something about the real Andrée coming out, and I felt like a jerk. Years ago my husband Young had told me about stupid things people say to get noticed at parties: “They will laugh at your joke at the moment, but later they will think less of you.”

Now you may all have heard of the tea bag theory—that what comes out of your mouth can be nothing other than what was inside you already. True enough. It is not as if the scalding water applied to the mesh bag causes the contents of what is thereby exuded—it merely releases it. This is certainly a point to consider.

There is another aspect to consider, too. Scripture says to “put off” certain behaviors and to “put on” others (Colossians 3:1-16; Ephesians 4:24). And certainly my first order of business at future parties in the “putting off” and “putting on” category will be to fill myself with the Holy Spirit instead of wine (Ephesians 5:18).