STANDING OUT IN A CROWD

Friday, October 13, 2006

It may go all the way back to my childhood. I have never liked to have the spotlight turned on me. You may ask, “How did you make it through almost fifty years of preaching?” Good question. As a child, I never wanted to be a preacher. Oh, the Baptist lady who lived across the street from us when I was about three or four called me her Baptist preacher. But even as a kid I thought she was a little squirrelly. She is the one who called me across the street for a great looking piece of cantaloupe only to ruin it by putting pepper on it. I ran back across the street crying. I also cried before I gave my first three minute talk at Vacation Bible School. (I was a junior in High School then). I never gave oral book reports in High School even though they were required.

I felt like a country bumpkin carrying two suitcases through the lobby of the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas when everybody else was rolling theirs. And I do mean everybody. Yep, I felt like the spotlight was turned on bright and shining right on me.

Today, Charlotte and I moved up in society. We bought rolling suitcases. But once again the spotlight was turned on us. We were the only ones rolling suitcases out of Macy's and through the food court at Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale. If anybody who knows Charlotte saw us, they probably said, “Look, they have just returned from a flight somewhere and Charlotte had to go to Macy's before she could go home.”

I hate to stand out in a crowd!