I Wanted To Get Away Poem by Curtis Johnson

I Wanted To Get Away
By Curtis Johnson

Without naming the company, one of my favorite commercials use to be the one featuring ‘embarrassing moments' and closing with the question, “Want to get away”? Many years before those commercials were conceived and popularized, I had such a moment in one of my college classes. It would have been a great time to get away, or disappear, or for a fire drill moments before, or for “The Rapture”.

The class size was no more than 15 plus the teacher, who was a rather friendly and smooth character. I think that it was my second year at Bible college where I was studying for the Gospel ministry. This was most definitely a required class for anyone seeking to be a public speaker. So I was well suited to excel in my Homiletic class, or so I thought. I did fine later on during the year and more that just passed the course.

But for some reason on that particular morning, when it came my turn to stand before the class and preach my sermon, I bummed out. My subject matter was fine, and my three points were well defined and organized, but just passed the introduction of my message, I froze and forgot everything. The teacher and the class were great and very supportive. I do not remember if I managed to pull through it or whether I was forced to sit down. What I do remember is that, in spite of the kind spirit in the room, I was very embarrassed.

Yes, I became a pastor and preached hundreds of sermons and spoke in public on many other non church functions. No, the ‘freeze’ never happened again, and I suspect that I was to ever remain humble and never think myself to be a great speaker. And also, one embarrassing moment was more than enough for me, and I think that I learned my lesson well. 09282015