I stood with another man after the confirmation service at St. john’s, Burn, TN.  I must have asked, “How’re you doing?”  He replied, “Still upright.”  I said, “One time when I was filling in at a church a man I knew fairly well asked me, ‘How you doing?’ and I said, ‘Still upright.’  Within in two weeks I received word that he had suddenly died of a heart attack.  So, I don’t tell people that I’m still upright anymore.”

The man at the coffee pot said, “I knew a guy who lived his life sort of helter –  skelter.  But then he got cancer and I asked him if he had ever been baptized, ‘No,’ he said, ‘But I’ve always wanted to be baptized.’  He lived near a catholic church and school, I asked if he wanted me to talk to a priest or one of the nuns about baptizing him.  ‘No, I don’t want that,’ the man said. Well would you like me to baptize you.  He said, ‘Yes, I would like that.’  So, I baptized him and told Pastor Nathan. Nine days later he died.  It made me feel real that I did that.  It was a real blessing to be able to do that”

“Yes, I said, “It was a blessing to you and think of what a blessing it was to your friend.”