She Thought It Was My Real Life Story

Wine, women & Jesus. We gather on Monday or Tuesday nights in wineries around the Dallas metroplex. We hang out, have candid conversations, engage with good Bible teaching, then hang some more. The group is small. The venues are relaxed. The staffs are curious (they have to listen to the preaching too!). The conversations are true. And the wine is good. Every week I walk away amazed at what God is doing in the lives of the women in those wineries.This week was a bit different from the norm. Instead of teaching I performed a monologue called The Bema. It's a story written by Tim Stevenson about what it might be like when we see Jesus face to face at the judgment seat of Christ.  In the middle of the dialogue there is space to worship through song. Crystal and Tyler led us beautifully through songs that helped our hearts express what our minds were thinking. (I used to serve alongside Crystal in church, I'd forgotten how amazing her voice is - she so took us to the throne. After I finished we did the usual - we hung out and chatted. That's when the tall, blonde woman sitting on the couch called me over. I squatted by her and she proceeded to tell me:I've been telling people about what a great Bible teacher you are but then I walk in here and you start talking about how you were flying around with angels and I'm thinking "She's whacked." I started looking around to see if the other women are thinking what I am thinking - like you're saying you were taken into the heavenlies - and no one seemed bothered by that. For ten minutes I listened to you thinking "She's crazy!""Why doesn't anyone else thinks she's crazy?" Finally, I leaned over to my friend and that's when I learned you were telling a story!I burst out laughing. I've taught The Bema all over the United States never has someone mistaken it for my own personal experience. No wonder she thought I was whacked. I am still chuckling about it.Sometimes in the middle of life's "seriousness" you just have to laugh.However, next time I'll be sure to be more clear that it is a story. Not my real life story but a fictional story about what it might be like to see Jesus face to face.