Jeremy and I joined our church back in 2002. I had been visiting there since ’01 and Jeremy would join me every now and then. It was the church he grew up in, and our senior pastor now was his youth pastor back then.
When I would attend by myself I always sat in the middle of the middle section. When Jeremy came with me, we would sit in the very back, far left corner. I will never forget the Sunday that Pastor Ronnie came up to shake Jeremy’s hand before the service started. They shared “hello’s” and “how ya doing’s”, then Ronnie asked, “Hey Jeremy. I was just wondering. If there was one more row behind this one, is that where y’all would sit?”
From that point on, we have always sat in the middle section together.
When I was baptized in October of 2002 my membership transferred from my previous church. Savannah was soon to be born and I had a desire to get to know more of the women in this church. Jeremy and I went to a parenting class offered on Sunday nights and got to know a few other couples. But when I approached him about Sunday School, he had absolutely no interest.
Our pastor really encourages everyone to join a Sunday School class and he brings it up every once in a while during a sermon. So I would occasionally present the idea to Jeremy, and each time he would shake his head and say, “It’s not that I don’t like adult people, I just prefer babies”. (We work in the church nursery every week instead of going to a class!)
So imagine my surprise when Jeremy asks me if I’d like to try out a Sunday School class today. I was up for it, so we went. And it was nice. And I’m sure we will go back and visit them again. But here is the conversation that we had as we left the building:
Him: “Well? What did you think?”
Me: “Yeah, I liked it. But can I ask you something?”
Him: “Sure.”
Me: “Were you the class clown in school when you were a kid?”
Him (laughing): “Oh yeah, definitely!”
Me: “Uh-Huh. You know who I was? The kid who wanted to be as far away from the class clown as possible. I hated having attention drawn to myself!”
So herein lies something we will have to work out. Because I will have issues sitting with a man who is poking the guy in front of him, making strange noises with his Bible, and raising MY hand for ME when the teacher asks who among us has a problem with their temper…just to get a laugh out of those sitting around us!
Not to mention these people don’t really KNOW me, so they don’t really KNOW that he is kidding about me having a temper. Now they THINK they know me and are probably putting my family on their prayer lists!!!
Maybe if we go back next week I’ll sit in the back far left corner and he can sit in the middle of the middle section and get as much attention as one man can possibly stand! :)
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