The Day That I Walked On Water

I was always amused whenever I share the following story with others.

In Fall, 1991, I audited a college class at the college here in Hannibal, Hannibal-LaGrange College, which used to be a Baptist college but now only 'unofficially' a Baptist college. The class I took was called 'Christian Doctrine' and taught by a very bright man, Dr. Morgan. One day in class, Dr. Morgan mentioned miracles.

I decided to try some of my patented humor and I asked, "Dr. Morgan, are you going to talk about miracles?"

Dr. Morgan replied, "No."

I continued, "Have you read of any speculations on the metaphysics involved in changing five loaves and two fishes into food for 5,000 men?"

Dr. Morgan replied, "No."

I replied, "I haven't either! I've ALWAYS been fascinated by that one! As far as walking on water......whenever a lake freezes over.......I can do THAT," flopping my arm onto my desk.

(Only one student muffled a laugh in the back of the room.)

Dr. Morgan slowly walked over to my chair and, looking down on me from my side, in a disgusted tone of voice, he asked me, "Ya wouldn't consider that to be a miracle, wouldja?!"

I nervously laughed and replied, "No," and I laughed some more.

One thing that I noticed about this class of religion students that quite contrasted to my engineering classes many years earlier is that these students were usually afraid to laugh at clearly humorous comments. (This vignette is included in my manuscript. As I have told a few, my manuscript is not your typical tome on religion.)