Monday, July 25, 2011

Flipping Through and Laughing Out Loud



My lovely boss Ginger (with Digital Sermon Transcription, if you're interested) frequently Facebooks links to Jonathan Acuff's blog, and I have laughed out loud so many times reading it because he knows! Take, for instance, his latest "Stuff Christians Like" post: Saying Goodbye to Vacation Bible School. We've all been there. Yep, it's fun while it lasts, but seriously, could you do that every night of your life? (This year the week of VBS turned out to be my first week of work filling in for Matt here at IWU-Kokomo's front desk, so I missed all the "fun," but I certainly remember how utterly drained and exhausted I was at the end of those two hours!)


Anyway, I requested Acuff's Stuff Christians Like from Interlibrary Loan, and I picked it up today on the way to work. Flipping through it and reading only the headings made me laugh out loud and cause the laughing-tears start to slide down my face! If you've grown up in any kind of church culture at all (and I do mean any, clear across religious spectrum), you will find your church (you?) in a few of these! It's fun to laugh at yourself a bit, I think.


Here are some of my favorite headings under the banner Stuff Christians Like:


:: Trying not to complain around missionaries

:: The sound-guy neck crane

:: Pressing on your eyes during prayer

:: Saying "You're in my thoughts and prayers."

:: Name-dropping God to get out of a speeding ticket

:: Refusing to tithe until you have the proper amount of cheerfulness in your heart

:: Telling testimonies that are exciting right up until the moment you became a Christian

:: Losing the will to clap during songs

:: Finding typos in the worship music

:: Making sure everyone knows your fiance isn't living with you

:: Telling other people maybe God gave them the gift of singleness

:: Fake laughing at unfunny jokes out of Christian love

:: Judging people who use the Table of Contents in their Bible

:: Coming to church sick


...and my all-time favorite:


:: Dominating the "Please turn to..." Bible race during church

2 comments:

Ginger Schell said...

I love Jon Acuff! This is one of my favorites: http://www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristianslike/2009/04/521-judging-people-that-use-the-table-of-contents-in-their-bible/

His "Serious Wednesday" posts are great too. He'll take you from laughing to crying within a couple of paragraphs.

mom said...

And one of my favorites I heard a well meaning person say recently, (but not sure the younger set had a clue) "stripping for the race!" Somehow doesn't sound very holy afterall! Your daddy would have enjoyed that book! mls