When I was a boy we had an elderly lady that lived near us named Julie Mae Brown. She was up in years and had become almos deaf and couldn’t hardly see. Despite these issues, Julie Mae wanted to be in church on Sunday Morning but she couldn’t get there on her own. It became the responsibility of the deacon of the week to drive by Julie Mae’s house to pick her up and bring her to church.
One Sunday Julie Mae overslept and was running late. She wasn’t ready when our head deacon came by to get her and she made him late to church. We were sitting in our Sunday School Class when we heard the head deacon’s car slid into a parking place, scattering gravel all over. As he was helping her out of the car he became very exasperated.
He blurted out loudly, "Julie Mae, why do you even bother coming to church, you can’t see, you can’t hardly hear, you cannot be getting much out of coming, why do you bother"?
All of us in the class heard the deacon’s quesion, but we couldn’ hear Julie Mae’s reply. When the deacon came through the door with Julie Mae on his arm we could see he had been crying. We all wondered what could drive a big, gruff deacon to tears.
After church we sought out the deacon and questioned him.
He told us that when he had asked, "Julie Mae, why do you even bother coming to
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