Monday, February 9, 2009

beam me up, scotty!

sunday i had the privilege of sitting next to scotty during our worship service. i had one interaction with scotty previous to this- the first time i met him i went to shake his hand, not realizing that scotty skips the pleasantries of the hand shake and goes right to bear hugs. before i knew it, i had a scotty scarf hanging around my neck in the church foyer. scotty is about to turn 40 and is mentally handicapped, so even though it was abnormal and uncomfortable to be hugged by a stranger, i let it slide. scotty doesn't know you aren't supposed to be that affectionate to people at church- a simple handshake or head nod would do. i then found during our second interaction on the front pew that there are actually a lot of things about church he doesn't know yet. scotty doesn't know you aren't supposed to sing so loud in church- you may be a distraction to those around you. scotty doesn't realize that you aren't supposed to wave to the guy leading prayer- it may distract him from his responsibilities. scotty doesn't know you're not supposed to talk to people during communion- it kills the somber mood of the moment. scotty doesn't know you aren't supposed to clap joyfully unless you can do it on the beat- it may annoy the musically gifted people around you. it is amazing how sitting next to someone that had so much he didn't know revealed exactly how much i really don't understand about what the church should be.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think everyone has a story like that, some random distraction you can't avoid during worship.

By the way, I like how you added "My Nephew's Blog" instead of just using my name