Years ago, when I pastored a church, I had a conversation with a friend that rattled me.

We grew up together in a church and both drifted away after high school.

Then I experienced a spiritual transformation in college and he raced full out the other direction.

Photo Credit: Jofre Ferrer

He’d visited our church, which was now booming, a couple of times with his mom on Mother’s Day.

One evening as I was leaving the office he came by the church to deliver something for his mom. Afterward I stood at his driver’s window talking with him while he sat in his car with the engine running. That was my first clue he preparing for a quick getaway.

Easter was coming and we had a special service planned so I asked, “Why don’t you join us?”

He responded, “No, I’m really not interested. And I need to be going.” With that he rolled up his window and left me standing on the sidewalk in the dark.

I remember feeling rejected and wondering, “Was there something else I could have said?”

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