Joe Ligon

It happened up in the middle of the night. For those of you who are significantly younger than I am or are significantly more urban than I am, “up in the middle of the night” is the time period somewhere between about 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. In other words, it is the time that most decent folks are asleep. I was. I came wide awake somewhere around midnight. I lay there for a few minutes wondering why I was awake. It was way too early to get up, and I was way too young to need to. Then I heard a noise.

Well, it happened again at the end of last month. The Lord blessed me with another birthday. I made another trip around the sun. The problem is I have had so many of those pesky little trips that seem to be happening more quickly all the time that I have experienced a little dizziness. I have noticed that these confounded birthdays have impacted me in some rather unique ways.

It happened several years ago. The Associational Children’s Camp leaders asked me to preach at children’s camp. It was one of the greatest honors of my life. I tried to imagine a bunch of children listening to me preach. I could picture them sound asleep with their heads back and a little Falls Creek drool in the corners of their mouths. So, I decided I needed to add something to spice things up for those rascals. Here’s what I came up with. One, we would have a dance contest.