Just As I Am

Yesterday our closing hymn was one of my old favorites, "Just As I Am."  I stood in my seat and sang the song and all of a sudden I had this urge to burst out in laughter.  I was reminded of a story that involved my father, me, and "Just As I Am."  When I was active in the youth group of First United Methodist in West Palm Beach we sat on the right left side of the santuary every Sunday.  If you were a visitor to our church you would have never found a visitors card or offering envelope because I wrote poetry on them each Sunday and my friends wrote notes to each other on them.  Some of my most profound preteen love poems were scribbled during a sermon on one of those cards.  One particular Sunday the youth were cutting up a bit in the front....giggling, writing lots of notes....and I was one of the culprits.  Sometime during our reverie I could feel someone looking at me from behind.  I knew it had to be one of my parents....so I chose not to look back.  The intenseness of the gaze continued and finally I turned....to see my father glowering at me with one of his bushy eyebrows raised....and the finger (my dad lost the tip end of his finger in a bridge accident when I was young).  A sick dread came over me because I knew what was going to happen to me after church.  I quickly straightened up my church act....and when the invitation came around I hurried to the altar and fell on my knees asking for forgiveness and grace.  I prayed through all six verses of "Just As I Am."  My father told me in the car that he was not going to do anything to me....because he felt like God and I had already hashed everything out.  He was right....and I never misbehaved in church again.  To this day whenever I sing, or hear the song....I smile and can still see my dad....pointing that finger at me....with that caterpillar eyebrow raised.  So, today I want to share the song with you.  Click here to listen to it, close your eyes, and imagine a white haired man....pointing his finger at you.....and raising his eyebrow....and I hope you smile.  I always do.  Happy Monday!