Sunday Morning

This past Sunday we attended church with my parents at their church. This was Mom's first time since her surgery and did really well. But we did have a few interesting items.

One: After the service as I was walking out the older couple behind us stopped to tell me, "Your children are beautiful." Oh...wow - thank you! So, nice. Then it got a little creepy.  "You did really well with that girl of yours  - her hair is beautiful."

Yes, it is. Melissa has some beautiful true strawberry blond hair. But to have a stranger - a man - at that to tell me my daughter has great hair just seems a little creepy. Maybe I'm a little overprotective and totally paranoid about perverts, but I just didn't like it.  Melissa told me that the man and his wife talked about her hair during the service - commenting on the color and how it was shiny.

Hello, people - we're in church. Focus!

Two:  Then there was the twenty-something guy that walked down the aisle drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette in the middle of the sermon. When he got in front of the preacher he just stopped, then the preacher said, "You can sit there. Can you put that out, please?" Then the young man threw the cigarette at the preacher and turned around and walked back up the aisle.  The preacher then asked for security to help the man out.  He end up being arrested. You can read the newspaper account here.

When the man walked down the aisle I actually thought it was apart of the sermon - a planned demonstration.  The preacher was preaching from Colossians 3 -leaving behind attitudes and behaviors that are accepted in the world, but against God. I kept expecting the preacher to some how use him as an  example. But instead he had a young boy come up to help him demonstrate. At the end he explained that the young man was NOT apart of him sermon and that it did seem he had some problems and to join  in prayer for him.

This man could have easily have had a gun instead of just a cup of coffee and a cigarette.  In the last few years there have been a few gunmen shooting people in churches - it could have easily been another tragedy.  Who knows why he did what he did. Maybe he didn't like being told that God doesn't like sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed. (Col 3:5) But next time I hope he just walks out the door instead.