On Becoming a Christian – Part 3

(From 7/10/06 on my old blog)

(Really, you should reads part 1 and 2 first)

I transferred from the College of DuPage community college to the University of Michigan in 1977 and lived in a residence hall called South Quad. This dorm was divided up into named sections consisting of a couple of wings on a couple of floors. I lived on the first floor in what was called Frederick House. It was where transfer students like me lived as well as some grad students. I liked living there and did so for 2 years. Living in a dorm the first years away from home is a good thing because you get to know lots of people who live on the same floor. What a bunch of characters there were that lived there. But that’s another story.

One of the guys who lived down the hall was named Dave. Dave started attending church at some point and eventually invited me to visit the church with him and for some reason I agreed to do so. A number of other people who lived there somehow became aware of the fact that I had accepted his invitation. He told me he would come by my room at 9 am Sunday morning to give me a ride to the church.

I didn’t really want to go and regretted accepting his invitation. When 9 am came around, he knocked on the door. I pretended to not be there and let him knock for what seemed to me to be hours but was probably just a few long minutes. He eventually gave up.

Later that day, thanks to my roommate, everyone knew about what happened and how I ignored his knocks. I got a bit of well earned ridicule - enough so that I felt even guiltier than I did right after he stopped knocking. So, the next Sunday, I really did go with Dave to church. But that was the only time I went during my stay in Michigan.

In retrospect, I recognize that this was another one of those times that someone was knocking. Dave was knocking on His behalf…