Mother Mary Speaking

Mother Mary Speaking

You may be sure that your sin will find you out.

Numbers 32:23

I went to college at Abilene Christian University—a small, conservative, evangelical school. My parents sacrificed a lot to help me go to ACU, and I helped by working two or three jobs at a time. One of my jobs was working the switchboard in the dorm where I lived. I was also what we called a checker or resident assistant on the first floor of the dorm. That meant I had to check to be sure all the girls were in their rooms before curfew and to enforce the rule of keeping the noise level down in the halls during “quiet hours” so the girls could study.

Fortunately, the switchboard was right outside the main door to my floor, so I could do both jobs at once. And since the switchboard was usually inactive during quiet hours, I could also study while sitting there.

In those days we did not have phones in each room. We had only two phones on each floor, one on each end of the dorm. With three floors, that meant we had six phones in all for 218 girls. That seems incomprehensible in our smartphone, Bluetooth, text-crazy age, but that’s how it was then.

On the switchboard it was easy to tell whether a call was coming from inside or outside the dorm, and we were careful about how we answered calls coming from outside: “Nelson Hall. How may I direct your call?” But when calls came from inside the dorm, we answered in lighthearted ways, just for fun.

One day I was working the switchboard, and a call came to the board from inside the dorm. I answered, “Nelson Nunnery, Mother Mary speaking.”

There was a pause; then I heard, “Well, that’s very interesting, Mary. This is Dean Wilkinson. . . .”

O Lord, you know my sins before I even commit them. And it’s so easy to sin with my lips. Please forgive me when I do. Without your forgiveness, I am lost indeed. Amen.