On the Dean's List - stories for my Grandchildren

It is my good fortune to attend the same church as does Paul Faulkner, long time Bible Professor and Family Counselor. In fact, Paul taught our Bible class this past week - a lesson that touched on the choices we make.

When I attended ACU, I took a Freshman Bible class from Paul. I recall that on the final we were asked to name the 12 Apostles; someone began humming the little song that starts "Jesus named them one by one..." and others joined in the humming. Finally Paul just stopped the class and led us all in singing the verses aloud.

Paul was also the Dean of Men at that time, and if you ran afoul of the school's policies, he was the Man To See. Chapel attendance was compulsory at that time (perhaps it still is) and it was - pun intended - religiously checked for attendance.

My Freshman year I worked until midnight at the radio station, and after shutting down the station and driving across town, it was usually about 1 AM when I got to bed. On those mornings that I did not have an early class, well... I often made the choice to sleep in.

About mid-way through the semester, it should come as no surprise that I received word that the Dean wanted to see me. I showed up at the appointed time, along with several others, and eventually was invited into the Dean's office for a little chat. Paul had a large ledger on his desk, and he turned to the appropriate page and began scanning down the page for my name.

I saw my entry long before he did, and I was looking at the book upside down. It wasn't hard to find, because the entries looked something like this:

Joe Adams X,X,X
Bill Agee. X,X
Bob Anderson X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X,X

Paul ran his finger down the list, and then slid it across the page, saying, "My, my. My, my my!"

I did the only thing I could think of. I said, "I think we ought to pray about this. Don't you?"