Wide asleep in the pew

Do I really need to explain the reason why I slept all the way through the sermon this morning?

Have you ever done that? The sermon's not boring and you're not particularly tired, but a cloud of heavy slumber descends just as the preacher gets into it, and there you are, wide open in the pew, head tilted over almost touching the seat , mouth open and drooling...
I believe I heard my mother say once that the Enemy does that. If he can't distract you or cause some kind of confusion or upset for you on the Lord's day, he can just throw some sleep dust into your eyes and there you go. Do you believe that? Can't quite remember if C.S. Lewis had included that ruse in his Screwtape Letters.

Feeling too guilty to give the customary compliment or show some sign of appreciation to the waiting pastor, I found myself filing out with everyone else avoiding the pastor's eyes. It must have been a spanking good sermon ( no less from John Earnhardt, racing car driver Dale's cousin). Maybe I did hear the intro. Something about mosquitoes feeding on blood. He wanted to draw some kind of parallel with Christians needing to feed on the blood of Christ in order to live His life.

I slipped between two old folks shuffling out as though I was in a hurry and looking for someone over the other side of the foyer. But I didn't escape the smile of the most beautiful Pamela, and she caught me inside a warm embrace, beaming up at me as though she was delighted I was just there today! Dear Pamela. Maybe in eighty years you have grown shorter, more fragile, wracked with arthritis and suffering from Parkinson's, but you still manage to remind us of God's all-embracing, forgiving, unconditional love

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