Every once in a while I do something that makes absolutely no sense. This past Sunday was one of them. Normally on Sunday morning my routine is the same. I go to bed late Saturday night and set my alarm for around 9:15am or so. Then when it starts beeping I scramble in the dark trying to find it and after elbowing my wife in the face and knocking over my glass of water on the bedside table I finally feel my fingers grasp it, just to have it fall off the table and get lost in the pile of clothes lying on the floor. After a minute or so of this battle I finally slam my head back against the pillow and wish I could sleep for another hour or so. But I soon realize that although Pillow Creek Community Church has extremely comfortable seats, I just dont' seem to learn much and I force myself into the shower.
But this Sunday was different. The alarm clock battle still happened at what felt like the dawn of time which was in reality around 7:30am (I didn't even know there was a 7:30am on Sunday). Unfortunately I lost the battle with the alarm clock and bolted from bed at 8:00am when I realized I had slept in...I had decided to go to Sunday school. I used to always go to Sunday School at my old church, but since attending this new church I was still in the feeling out stages...which has gone on about 3 years now! So it was time to get involved and today was the day.
I looked in the bulletin ahead of time to see what the topic was..."Living the LIFE at West Portal)". LIFE is an acronym for something (I'm not sure what) and relates to our small groups. They used to be CARE groups, but I guess they figured those groups weren't about caring anymore so they got rid of that :-) I at first thought that maybe only small group leaders could attend, but I figured I'd crash the party if that was the case...wouldn't be the first time! At church I ran into a few people who attended the 1st service and the shock on their faces to see me up at this hour was priceless. I explained to them I was going to Sunday School and they gave me this weird look like I was some kind of pedofile. Realizing what they were thinking I quickly added that I was attending ADULT Sunday School, not stalking the kids at kids Sunday School. The relief on their face was quite evident and I secretly saw them hang up their cell phones from dialing 911.
The class was in Room 112 and being the smart guy I am with a Bachelor of Commerce I knew that in order to find this room I just had to find Rooms 111 and 113 and then enter the room in between. I walked down a hallway and found Room 111...the Library. I then looked to the right and found Room 113...the Men's bathroom. In between those two was about 6" of wall and no door. I was stumped at first, but luckily I had read Harry Potter and knew how they got to the hidden train station. So I took a running start and slammed into that 6" of wall thinking I would magically appear in Room 112. Apparently the designers of the church had not read Harry Potter when they built the place back in the mid 1900's and all I got was a sore forehead and arm as I lay on the floor dazed. A passerby graciously helped me up (what loving people at this church) and directed me to where Room 112 was...clear across the church down a completely different hallway. I sauntered on over there thinking to myself that I should mention to one of the pastors that they might want to try renumbering the rooms.
I walked into the class and immediately sat down at a table. I didn't want to do the typical thing of playing shy because it was my first time there and be all timid. I figured I wanted to get right into things and I sat down right next to this other lady. The pastor there was quite surprised to see a new person in the room and I noticed a few other people frozen in time as they stared at this new person who dared to venture into their Sunday School class. I signed the attendance sheet and watched as the lady beside me signed her name...and one more. I suddenly realized I had sat in her husbands chair but she was too nice to tell me! So I scooted over one and graciously apologized. Now I was facing the complete opposite direction from the front and realized that I was not in a good spot. So off I went to my own table...all alone...so much for getting to know people! Luckily by the time it started two other people who I semi know joined my table and the class began.
I was excited for the topic of "Living the LIFE at West Portal" and couldn't wait to get started. However, as the class began I realized that wasn't today's topic...that had been last weeks topic! Arrgg! I think they should put next weeks Sunday School class into this week's bulletin because by the time anyone reads the bulletin the class is over! Anyways, I digress. The topic was "Let's talk about any of the past topics we've talked about so far." Hmmmm...not such a great topic for someone who is here for the first time! But I wasn't about to let that stop me and at our table I asked what this previous topic on Barbarian Christanity was all about. We had some great discussion on that and we eventually went on to a new topic for that week which was "If God knows everything, why should we pray?" It was a great topic, however all the discussion questions following that just talked about the Lords prayer. So although I didn't feel like we really talked about that topic, I did learn some good stuff about the Lords prayer.
The class ended and we all walked out. The pastor had been talking about this book called "Surprised by Jesus" that a lot of the previous topics had been from and he was putting it back into the library. So I quickly grabbed him after the class and asked to borrow it. So far it's a great book and I'm looking forward to my holidays to start to read it. And in regards to this class, just like the Terminator, "I'll be back!" and I encourage anyone else to also come join me...I'll save you a spot at my table.
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