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| My Embarassing Moment - Standing Alone by © DuaneSimolke I believe I was fourteen, maybe fifteen. A friend and I had decided to camp out. I hadn't camped out since I was much younger, and found the hard-clay ground to be too unlike my soft bed. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that Saturday night. Normally, I went with my father to church on Sunday mornings, but he had to work that Sunday, so I went by myself. The week before, our pastor had been complaining about back-row Baptists, and no one sitting in the first several rows of the church. I had decided then that, this week, I was going to sit in one of the first several rows. So I walked in and sat down by myself, about three rows in front of most of the congregation, and as many behind the deacons (who sat on the front row so they could collect offerings or guide people to the altar). Our services always started with some songs, then an offering prayer, an offering, a sermon, a closing prayer, then an invitation to the altar. We stood for each prayer. Apparently, I fell asleep during the offering prayer. I woke up when I heard “amen,” but that “amen” wasn’t to the end of the offering prayer, it was to the end of the closing prayer! I had stood, sleeping, through the offering and the entire sermon, in front of the entire church! (Well, at least the deacons had their backs to me!) I slipped out of church during the invitation. After telling my father what had happened, I told him that I was going to skip church the next Sunday. He understood. When I returned the following week, I was a back-row Baptist again. Duane Simolke |
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