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When We Live to Manage the Telltale

by Billy Adams
9/10/2012 / Short Stories

The door closed behind him as he made his way into the house. It had been a relatively good day at church that Sunday and Henry was ready for some lunch and possibly a nap. His wife was visiting with her sister in Ohio that week, so Henry was on his own for a few more days. While he was preparing a meal for himself, he kept thinking about a conversation he had earlier that day right before church services started. He was walking down the hallway and as he was heading for his assigned place during worship time, someone stopped him to talk for a while. During the conversation, that person hinted that something might be wrong in his life and that he needed to address those issues. Henry quickly left that person to continue into church. He was somewhat put off by the opinions of this person that he had known for such a long time. How dare this person challenge his Christian service?

Henry had been a faithful member of Antioch Baptist Church for over 20 years. During that time, he served as a youth pastor, a Sunday school teacher and more recently, a deacon. It was very strange for him to have someone come up to him and challenge his intentions. Henry came from a broken family and his mom had taken him to church as long as he could remember. She made sure that he was faithful to attend Sunday school and she sacrificed many things so that Henry could attend summer camp and yearly mission trips. Henry loved the atmosphere church provided and didn't hesitate to volunteer for additional activities.

When Henry finished college, he returned to his home town and church ready to assist in any area of service that was available. His mother died a few years earlier, so coming back to Antioch Baptist Church seemed like revisiting a close part of his family as well as reintroducing treasured memories of his mother. He first served as an interim youth pastor for 8 months while his church was looking for a person to permanently fill that position. He had contemplated working full time in that capacity, but decided to back away from the job at the last minute.

One morning, he was asked to temporarily fill in as the Sunday school teacher for a college age class. He was hesitant on teaching the class. He wasn't known as a very outgoing person, so standing in front of thirty to forty college students seemed like a very tall order. He agreed to teach the class and has been teaching the class for over 6 years. Three years ago, Henry met his wife, Tammy at church during a fellowship one summer. They married the following year and both are faithful members at Antioch. Last year, the church body elected to make Henry a deacon. Henry accepted the offer and was ordained that winter. For someone to challenge his intentions was beyond the pale. After church that day, Henry felt compelled to ask that person to drop by his house later for supper. He didn't want to let this line of questioning go unanswered and hoped that he could give adequate reasoning behind his service.

Later in the day, Henry starting thinking about the supper and his meeting. He became very aggravated and was leaning toward canceling the meeting altogether. He thought that it was below his dignity to justify his motives and explain his actions. Everyone knew Henry and accepted him for what he was. Why should he need to lower himself to answer questions that no one had ever asked him before? It was almost like his service to Antioch meant nothing to this person. He thought about all of the people he had helped. He made a mental list of all the fellowships he had attended and the many church members he had visited in the hospital. How could anyone fault him for those great services? Why would a church elect him to be a deacon if they too didn't agree with what he was doing?

There was a knock at the door. Henry stood there wondering what the person would think if he just decided to not invite him in. It would serve him right, Henry thought. But then, Henry started thinking about a sermon that his pastor had preached not two months ago. For some reason, the message popped into his head. He remembered the pastor reading a verse in the Bible and stating that everyone had sinned and that no one could enter into heaven without forgiveness of their sins. He remembered hearing that our good works did nothing for our salvation and that it was the free gift of God and the grace shown to everyone that offered any hope of heaven. Henry understood that even though he was a good man in his eyes, his good works were nothing in God's eyes and that he would not enter heaven without God's forgiveness. It didn't matter how many services he participated in or how people in church viewed his life. Without the acceptance of God's free gift provided by the death and resurrection of Jesus, the main thing that those services did was mask the fact that Henry needed God.

Henry wasn't sure what to do. If he met with this person for supper, he risked letting people know that he wasn't a Christian and that revelation might lead to embarrassment and ridicule. He wanted to resolve the issues he had with this person, but under the circumstances, he wasn't sure if tonight was the best time to meet. Henry heard the door knock again. With fear and trembling, Henry walked toward the door and slowly opened it. The person smiled and asked if he could come in. Henry lifted his head and replied back "Yes, Lord".

Billy Adams is a creative director for a small software development company located in Texas. His passion is writing short stories as well as commentaries on Christian topics and politics. You can view all of Billy's creative writing postings at www.contentservant.com

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