A Presbyterian anecdote
12:38 p.m.
I am a fidgetter. It�s better now that I am more �mature�, but I still have a hard time sitting still, especially in those situations which require that you behave with a certain amount of decorum so that you don�t disturb the other patrons. This would happen as well in the choir I sang in at Wesly-Knox. The choir was at the front, just behind the minister, and I admit that I would get bored, or cramped, or whatever, and play with my hair, or wriggle slightly, and generally not sit still. One Sunday after the service when we were having coffee in the friendship room, a woman took me aside and started bawling me out for my lack of stillness. I had no idea who she was, although I had seen her in the congregation from week to week. It just so happened that this was November 11, and the minister�s sermon had moved me greatly, and I was emotionally vulnerable. I think this woman�s impression was that I was in the choir only to glorify myself, instead of God, and I gave all the correct responses to her queries to set her mind at ease and so she would leave me alone already! It didn�t help matters that, although I was in fact 24 years old, I looked 16.
After she was gone, I told the choir director of my visitor. He was rather upset, and said he would talk to the minister. He told him that someone had upset one of his choristers, and the minister said he would find out who it was. He called him back later to say he knew who it was, and did Mr. Choir Director want to know? No, he didn�t. Several Sundays later, and I was really trying to sit more quietly in my pew, I again saw the woman in the friendship room and tugged on the director�s sleeve, and said, �That�s the woman who talked to me.� He took one look at her and said to me, �You were bawled out by the preacher�s wife!�
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