Last week before I left for Arizona, I had an unexpected guest at my door. I was trying to rest and to recover from a nagging cold. I was startled to hear the doorbell ring. I got up and proceeded to open the door, and to my surprise, there were an older gentleman and lady dressed as though they had just left a funeral. My heart dropped as I quickly realized that I had rushed to the door to find two representatives from a local Jehovah Witness church. The guy looked at me and quickly asked what I thought the future would hold now with all this chaos was going on in the world around us. I quickly responded that the world has always and will always carry a sense of mystery and uncertainty and that our current situation is just a reminder of that. And from there, we continued to have a discussion that consisted of his awkward but direct questions and my clever, but sometimes deflective answers. I rocked back and forth trying to find a way out of the conversation. I informed the gentleman that I was a christian and that I “got it” but he didn’t bite. I told him that I had a terrible cold and instead of showing me any compassion, he proceeded to ask me more questions and keep me from my Thera-flu.
Toward the end of the encounter, he looked at me and asked me for God’s name. I was shocked by his question and simply responded with Yahweh. He stood there looking at me as though I had failed his quiz. Cornered and confused, I started to rattle off other names and titles for God hoping that one of them would stop the madness. He finally interrupted me and invited me to a local conference and provided me with some reading material. At this point, I wasn’t paying attention to him but wondering if I got his question right about God’s name. A simple yes or no would have been great right then.
After he tried to sell me on the upcoming conference, I turned my body toward my door to signal the end of our conversation. At this point, the lady stepped up to the plate and grilled me on my availability and contact information. I am ashamed to admit it but I told them that I am rarely in town and that I travel a lot (which isn’t completely untrue). But I am truly ashamed that when asked for my phone number, instead of saying no, I gave them a random number. I guess some other poor guy/girl in SC will get a random call one day from someone from a Philadelphia Jehovah Witness church. They can thank me later.
