On our recent vacation, Mary and I visited a church in another state. We had never been there before and ended up arriving about fifteen minutes late. We rushed in slightly embarrassed and were handed an order of worship. An usher efficiently led us to the back row of the fairly full worship area and pointed out some empty seats. They were in the middle of the row, so to reach them we needed to squeeze past a couple sitting on the end of the row.

Did they slide down and let us in? No. So we shimmied through trying not to step on their toes. As I passed them I recognized the man. He is an employee of the denominational office of that church. To tell you the truth, I was surprised that someone that responsible in other areas would not be alert to the need to move over for visitors.

There are a lot of reasons why regular attenders chose the seats they do in the congregation on a Sunday morning. Some sit in the back because they have small children and may have to take them out to the bathroom. Some sit where they can hear or see best. Some notice that the air conditioner blows right on you in a certain location so they avoid that spot. Not a few claustrophobic types are adverse to sitting in the center of a row with their escape route blocked by others. Once we get used to “our” location most of us don’t like to change.

But here is an opportunity to show love and kindness to others in a practical way. This Lord’s Day, let me encourage you to slide over. Leave room on the ends of the aisle for late comers and visitors. They have probably have already had enough stress for one day and squeezing over you and me will only add to it.

The Apostle John wrote: “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” I John 3.18 (ESV)

See you Sunday, front row, center.

As you may know, Mary and I spent the last two weeks on vacation with family in VA and Atlanta.  Here are some observations and “lessons” learned:

1.  Southwest VA, where we grew up,  is beautiful and we know what to see and not see if you are a tourist in the area.  Avoid the Monster House and Dinosaur Woods at Natural Bridge but Dixie Caverns and the Wild Life Safari is worth the trip. We made our second annual trek up Sharp Top (one of the Peaks of Otter) and it was a clear, dry day so the view was spectacular.  They say you can see West VA from there but why would you want to do that? (For you Lone Star State folks, the VA-WVA rivalry is similar to the Aggie-Longhorn thing).

2.  If you buy a 12 by 3 foot plastic pool, the kind with the inflatable ring top, it’s probably not going to work anywhere in the vicinity of the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge mountains as it depends on completely level ground for proper functioning.  OK, you could  get a  pick and shovel and  dig out the mountain to make it  level but… hey, I thought this was a vacation!