A Parable
I thought I would share a parable and in doing so I thought I would spice it up with a photo of the author so I did a web search for Douglas Wilson, since this is the man who said these words. While searching I found this guy
This is Wilson Douglas and not the man who I remember seeing in Monroe just last year. I don't remember seeing that button. Therefore, I kept searching and landed upon this man next
This man is actually Douglas Wilson, but the man who I am quoting has more facial hair, and to my knowledge does not play the trumpet. Finally, after much searching I found this lovely, the man who actally made the quote later to be . . . quoted.
Douglas Wilson creates little parables before the call for his congregation on each Sunday. I have been blessed with the opportunity to listen to most of these sermons. His parables are generally fantastic and this one is no exception, and to be honest made me laugh out loud when I heard it. I thought that the laughter creating dialouge could not go on living in a bag in my truck so I have typed it out and put it on my page. I’m sure portions of it will make onto his blog at sometime, but until then I will do this much. To the best of my ability it is word for word what he said at the pulpit, yet without the back laughter from the congregation. Enjoy, like I did.
Wilson’s parable on “Courtship”
Once there was a young woman who came home from church one day and she had a question for her father.
“Dad,” she said, “you know how Cindy’s father gave John permission for him to court her?”
“Yes,” he said, “I heard about that one, which in my mind, was the first sign of trouble. Why would I know about that?”
“Well I was standing with Cindy after church and three of the older church ladies came up and effusively congratulated her. Cindy was really embarrassed, I could tell, but I couldn’t tell what was wrong with it. They were all really sweet.”
“So you’re asking what the problem was if there was one?”
“Right.”
“Well I suppose John has been getting himself congratulated too?”
“Oh yes, even more.”
“Suppose John came up to me and said that he had mailed off his application to Harvard Law School, would I respond with ‘congratulations’?”
“Well, no because he didn’t get in yet, and just between us he wouldn’t get in either.”
“And if he filed the papers in city hall to enter the race for mayor?”
“Well the same, he just filed he didn’t win anything.”
“So it is with this. Courtship, rightly understood, is an application and congratulations are not in order. The people involved are deciding what they are going to do but nobody has done anything yet.”
“Thanks Dad that makes sense.”
“But then there is another thing. Then there are those courting couples, who are for all intense and purposes are engaged, they are emotionally entangled and committed and when standing around after church she is all over him like ivy on the garden wall. You can congratulate people like that all you want. Somebody is getting something and so that somebody should be congratulated. Couples like that can’t have it both ways, the social protection of not having decided and the emotional comfort of having decided.”
This is Wilson Douglas and not the man who I remember seeing in Monroe just last year. I don't remember seeing that button. Therefore, I kept searching and landed upon this man next
This man is actually Douglas Wilson, but the man who I am quoting has more facial hair, and to my knowledge does not play the trumpet. Finally, after much searching I found this lovely, the man who actally made the quote later to be . . . quoted.
Douglas Wilson creates little parables before the call for his congregation on each Sunday. I have been blessed with the opportunity to listen to most of these sermons. His parables are generally fantastic and this one is no exception, and to be honest made me laugh out loud when I heard it. I thought that the laughter creating dialouge could not go on living in a bag in my truck so I have typed it out and put it on my page. I’m sure portions of it will make onto his blog at sometime, but until then I will do this much. To the best of my ability it is word for word what he said at the pulpit, yet without the back laughter from the congregation. Enjoy, like I did.
Wilson’s parable on “Courtship”
Once there was a young woman who came home from church one day and she had a question for her father.
“Dad,” she said, “you know how Cindy’s father gave John permission for him to court her?”
“Yes,” he said, “I heard about that one, which in my mind, was the first sign of trouble. Why would I know about that?”
“Well I was standing with Cindy after church and three of the older church ladies came up and effusively congratulated her. Cindy was really embarrassed, I could tell, but I couldn’t tell what was wrong with it. They were all really sweet.”
“So you’re asking what the problem was if there was one?”
“Right.”
“Well I suppose John has been getting himself congratulated too?”
“Oh yes, even more.”
“Suppose John came up to me and said that he had mailed off his application to Harvard Law School, would I respond with ‘congratulations’?”
“Well, no because he didn’t get in yet, and just between us he wouldn’t get in either.”
“And if he filed the papers in city hall to enter the race for mayor?”
“Well the same, he just filed he didn’t win anything.”
“So it is with this. Courtship, rightly understood, is an application and congratulations are not in order. The people involved are deciding what they are going to do but nobody has done anything yet.”
“Thanks Dad that makes sense.”
“But then there is another thing. Then there are those courting couples, who are for all intense and purposes are engaged, they are emotionally entangled and committed and when standing around after church she is all over him like ivy on the garden wall. You can congratulate people like that all you want. Somebody is getting something and so that somebody should be congratulated. Couples like that can’t have it both ways, the social protection of not having decided and the emotional comfort of having decided.”
posted by T A Lucas | 1/28/2007
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