Give me one (Mormon) moment in time...

Today I had an online encounter with a celebrity blogger. More on that later. But my point is, this encounter was today's Mormon Moment.

The term "Mormon Moment" is absurdly popular right now as the mainstream media cover Mitt Romney's bid for the White House. Collectively, as a church, we're all experiencing this mystical "moment" right now as the nation watches to see whether a Mormon can become president. Meanwhile, the Book of Mormon (musical) continues its run on Broadway while the Fit2Fat2Fit guy and Josh Weed make for some nice Mormon counterpoint to Mitt's big moment.

But let's not kid ourselves, Mormon Moments are nothing new. We have them all the time.

All Church members experience these moments, and occasionally, so do those not (yet) of our faith. (Note that I refrained from calling them Non-Mormons -- a ridiculous way to describe someone who is non LDS. I'm not aware of any Website called Non-Mormon.org, nor have I seen any YouTube videos ending with, "My name is Billy-Bob. I wear a wife beater, cheer for the Cowboys and drink Budweiser. And I'm a non-Mormon." But I digress.)

If you've ever wondered how you could possibly understand the sentence, "Brother Allen, can the the EQP and I meet you right after BYC for a quick PPI?"... then you might be having a Mormon Moment. Other Mormon Moments might include:

-When you're asked to say the closing prayer after a Fireside (itself a two-hour long Mormon Moment), you find yourself asking God to bless the doughnuts and chocolate milk to "nourish and strengthen our bodies."

-Awakened by the ringing telephone, you pick up the telephone and say, "Heavenly Father?"

-While working as a restaurant server, you serve a customer beer with ice in the glass (my brother did that).

Admittedly, the kinds of humorous moments mentioned above are bit cliche. The real Mormon Moments, though, are the ones when we keenly feel what it's like to be a "peculiar people." I'll be honest, I never fully got used to wearing a white shirt and tie with a black name tag while walking the city market streets in Norway as a missionary. Knocking on strangers' doors was never comfortable for me, although I did it day after day. To this day, I feel a little guilty for never coming to love it the way I thought missionaries were supposed to. (Teaching was a different story, though -- I loved teaching.) But I like to think that God is happy I did it even though it never got easy.

I have never liked "sticking out," but as a Mormon, you're called upon to do it all the time. Ever been the only sober guy at the company Christmas Party? Ever had to go home alone when everyone else decides to go see the latest R-rated movie? Ever walked into your boss's office at work to admit telling a lie, knowing that she'll be mad but also probably think you're the dumbest guy on the planet?

Don't get me wrong, I understand that Mormons don't have a corner on the market when it comes to standards. But I think that others, when they know you're a Mormon or another brand of practicing Christian, are always watching...wondering if you'll slip up and simultaneously hoping you will and being disappointed if you do. I was once in situation where someone offered me a drink and before I could politely decline, a friend piped up and says, "He doesn't drink. He's Mormon." And ironically, even though I don't like sticking out, that was one of my best Mormon Moments.

So back to the celebrity encounter. Today my wife shared Middle-aged Mormon Man's (MMM) latest blog post on my Facebook wall and basically professed having a blog-crush on him. Then she said I need to read his stuff and start blogging more myself. So I looked into subscribing to his blog, but when I went there I saw his Facebook page link so just decided to friend him, knowing I could likely follow his posts that way. The next thing I knew, MMM actually commented on my wall about Christy's post (much to her simultaneous horror and excitement). So there you have it -- today's Mormon Moment.

What Mormon Moments have you had lately?