I have been doing a lot of thinking about the past and the things I have, and have not, accomplished.  Considering the surgery I have coming up, I suppose that this is a normal thing. But, because my brain is wired the way it is wired, the funny things keep intruding on my retrospections. It’s not that I am not serious minded. It is just that I prefer to remember the chuckles. And there were more than a few.

When Marsha and I were married we went on an extravagant, two day honeymoon to that worldwide vacation destination, Erie, PA. Yes, I am a big spender. On day three we headed down to Chattanooga TN where I was a student in a Bible college. It was a tough time, actually. We were newlyweds and wanted to spend every moment of everyday together. But, I worked, full time, on midnights for a textile company and went to school full time. And I served a church. We tried, though. We would talk late into the afternoon when I should have been studying and sleeping. Marsha would wake me up at 8:00 PM for supper when I should have been sleeping until 10:00 PM. She would feed me a huge meal when I should have been eating light so I wouldn’t get tired at work. 

          Well, all this worked on me. Even though I was young and full of energy I finally got to where I could barely stay awake at any time. The worst of it all was at 9:00 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. Theology of the Old Testament. Dr. Price. Auditorium 4. Just over three hundred students. Every class he called roll. The seating was graduated upward. That is, the podium was on the lower level. Each horizontal row was set higher than the row before it. Today it would be called ‘stadium seating.’ I don’t know what it was called then. I just know that it conspired against me. Because my name was near the end of the alphabet I was in the back row, which was the highest row. This is where the heat gathered. Once roll started I had to wait a long time till he got to me. So, there I sat listening to droning voices, exhausted, warm and waiting for three hundred students to say ‘here, sir’ before I could. I struggled, I sweated, I tried everything. But I could not stay awake. Theology of the Old Testament was hardly an exciting, gripping class. As I recall, the highlight was rollcall. It was a miserable class for me.

          Dr. Price would call my name, then have someone wake me, then he would tell me the importance of being alert. I didn’t fall asleep every day. In fact, it was only a few times that semester. But he always let me know that I had failed him, the school, the ministry and God Himself.

          Time passed. Eleven years later I was serving as an assistant pastor in a church hundreds of miles away from that school. My job was to lead the youth. Not just the teens, but all the way down to kindergarten. To that end my wife and I developed a Children’s Church for the little ones. It was excellent because they heard the Gospel and they heard it on their level.

          The church was going to have a series of revival services. The speaker was going to be Dr. Price. I thought this was great because I had never actually heard him speak. People said he was good, but for me, I was in a fog all of the time. I looked forward to the experience.

          But our pastor told me he wanted us to have the Children’s Church each night during the services so that the adults could listen to the good doctor without the burden of their children. Of course, I agreed, but I was disappointed.

          On the first night Dr. Price arrived just before the services were to start. (His plane was delayed.) As the pastor walked him into the church he stopped at the room where we held Children’s Church just to show Dr. Price what he had planned for the kids. As Dr. Price entered the room he looked up and saw me. His face split into a wide grin. Remember, eleven years had passed and I was just one of over three hundred in just one class. He saw over fifteen hundred students every day. But........

          “Ah, Mr. Wade! Are you getting enough sleep these days?”

          I was surprised, and so was the pastor. He asked if we knew each other. Dr. Price winked at me and said, “Oh yes. Mr. Wade was one of my more promising students.”

          With that he shook my hand, then accepted my introduction to my wife and left.

          Since I don’t think Dr. Price would have lied about it, I can only assume that he meant I was the student who showed the most promise of flunking his class. But that encounter impressed me. And it still makes me laugh.