Sorry, I didn't realise you were serious!

An amusing incident, with a serious undertone....

This morning, just before our 'how to write a sermon' class began our lecturer/teacher/preacher Paul was trying to work out what time the session was actually meant to start. Was it 10am exactly, or 10.05, or what? Consensus decided that as it was already 10.06 we should start anyway, Paul cleared his throat and the background hum died down. All except for one voice which continued to converse with his neighbour. To preserve his dignity we'll call him Gordon.

Paul is quite perceptive, and noticed that there wasn't total silence. So he asked Gordon to say a short prayer to kick off the session. All adopted an appropriate posture and waited for the prayer to begin.

And waited.

And waited.

After a while eyes started to open, heads started to lift, before Paul pointed out to Gordon that he couldn't hear him....

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realise you were serious" (i.e. I thought you were just telling me to shut up!)

After we had composed ourselves Gordon did indeed manage a prayer, out loud, and we started the lecture.

But it raises a point. How often have we been asked to do something for God and we've not taken it seriously, or we've ignored it hoping it will go away? God is waiting for you to do it, prompting you to remind you that he's still waiting.....