Silly Old Bear

So, we’re sitting in church tonight (my wife Susan and me), and our preacher (Dean) gets up to preach. Often, on Sunday nights, he will quote the first part of Philippians 4:4, and the congregation will respond with the last part.

Tonight, however, Susan’s response wasn’t quite the same as everyone else’s, and earns her the distinction of being the latest “Quote of the Moment”.

(The words below in black are preacher Dean’s; the words in blue are Susan’s.)

“Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say …”

“… SCOOT UP!”

- Susan O’Rear

OK, so let me explain.

I had surgery on my left foot a little over eight weeks ago, and I can’t put any weight on that foot for about another two weeks. So for the past eight weeks, I’ve been getting around on crutches and in a wheelchair. When we go to church, I almost always use the wheelchair. It’s just a lot easier in that setting.

Because of the wheelchair, Susan and I have been sitting in the “overflow” section of the auditorium, where I can park my wheelchair at the end of one of the portable pews, and she can sit right next to me. When Dean gets up to preach, he always stands in front of the podium and walks around while he preaches. There is a vertical support beam right in front of where I sit, between me and the podium.

When the service starts, I position my wheelchair where I can see the podium, because that’s where the song leader, prayer leaders, and others stand. When Dean gets up to preach, however, I have to reposition the wheelchair so that I can see him around the vertical beam. Sometimes I have to scoot up, sometimes I have to scoot back, it just depends.

Tonight, as Dean approached the podium, I began leaning forward and then backward, trying to figure out whether I needed to scoot up or scoot back to see him. I was doing this little bob-forward-then-backward dance when he started his lesson with the familiar, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say …”.

Just as he got to that part, Susan saw that I was having difficulty deciding how to position myself, so at the perfect moment, just as everyone else was responding, “Rejoice!”, Susan said in a very clear voice, “Scoot up!”

So, the next time you start to sing that old children’s ministry/church camp/youth group song, just remember that the words have changed. The new version is: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say scoot up!”

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