I’m Pretty Shallow

I was visiting a friend’s church, and just after sitting down I sent him a quick text message to let him know I was there. A few minutes later, during the “meet and greet” time, an elderly lady next to me said, “You shouldn’t be playing games in church. It’s irreverent!” I felt terrible, and politely said, “Oh. It wasn’t a game. I was sending a text mes . . .” She interupted, “That doesn’t matter!” and walked off. Suddenly I had a big problem. Instead of enjoying church, I found myself reacting like a five year-old kid. I wanted to send more text messages, and then poke my tongue out at her as I sent them. When she whispered to her husband during the sermon, I had to stop myself from tapping her on the arm and saying, “Shhhh! That's irreverent.” When she left before the end of the service, I wanted to run after her and tell her how rude she was to leave before the end. Of course, I asked God to forgive me for such thoughts. I have often thought of what I would have done if I was Jesus after He rose from the dead. I would have immediately gone for a visit to the High Priest and the Sanhedrin. I would have knocked on the door and before they opened it, I would have stepped through it and said, “Hey. How are you doing? Remember me? Huh? Huh!” I'm pretty shallow. But Jesus didn't do that (not that we know of). God has a lot of grace, so perhaps some of them were there at Pentecost, repenting for their murderous deed.