Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong. –1 Corinthians 16:13
The 8 a.m. worship service was always interesting. I liked it as a warmup for the other services, and also because you knew the people there were committed. Trade in extra sleep for a chance to sit in a pew? Dedication.
At the start of the service one Sunday, I was droning through some announcements when a movement caught my eye. A tiny mouse skittered in front of me, stopped, and looked up. We stared at each other for a couple of seconds. It was as if he was wanting to know when the next potluck was. I paused. “Well, you don’t see this every day,” I said to the folks, and explained that we had a guest worshipper that day.
After he went on his way, a couple of minutes later I heard an “Ohhh!” from a parishioner. Our new worshipper had run over her foot as he explored the sanctuary.
I relate this story to say that we need more mice (metaphorically speaking). How many of us go through each day expecting to sit in the same pew, follow the same bulletin, meet the same people, and go home to the same house? An unexpected visitor can shake things up. I guarantee you that the woman whose foot the mouse ran over stayed awake for the rest of the service.
So should we. Who knows what might happen today that shakes things up, puts us on the edge of our pew, and shifts the way we look at things?
Makes me think of the song about the squirrel that got loose in the southern church.