Goofy Dad Stories (12): Stumped By Glass

Goofy Dad Stories (12): Stumped By Glass.

A few years ago, the staff at Reality Ministries was invited to a beautifully restored old warehouse in downtown warehouse for a staff workshop. Red brick everywhere. Exposed wood beams. The interior decoration was stylish and creative, with lots of glass and exposed brick and rustic wood beams everywhere. Upon entering the building, we see a gorgeous conference room surrounded by glass panels. Striking and handsome. We were first invited to get our own coffee and Danish pastries and then enter the conference room for the start of the workshop. I never pass up coffee and Danish, so I immediately made short work of acquiring these tasty items. As I approached the glassed-in conference room, I noticed that the glass panels made up the entire outer wall of the room. The only problem was this… the entrance door was just another glass panel, identical to all those fixed glass panels. For the life of me, I couldn’t find the door. I kept bumping up against the glass panels, one by one, thinking surely this is the door. Every time I bumped up against a fixed panel, I spilled a little bit of coffee from my cup held precariously in one hand, while my other hand was holding a plate of Danish pastries. I worked my way around the glassed wall of the room, trying this panel, trying that panel, and finally I found the door. All of a sudden I heard laughter coming from inside the room. The entire staff was standing there inside the transparent glass, watching me as I continued to bump up against the glass panels, vainly searching for the door. They thought it was all hilarious. On top of that, I lost half my coffee.

But the story, unfortunately, is not finished. The workshop was excellent, and soon it became time for a lunch break. The food was placed outside the room, and we were to simply leave the conference room, pick up our food, and return to our work tables to enjoy lunch. But things were once gain unnecessarily difficult. The exit door was at a different place than the entrance door. And I once again couldn’t find the door. All those glass panels continued to look identical to me, so there I was, lost, trying to find the glass door. Again. By this time the staff members who are noticing my predicament are once again howling. One colleague was laughing so hard she cried. I was so happy to provide moments of joy to my fellow staff members. Thank goodness, by the end of the workshop, I was confidently exiting the conference room. As we were exiting at the end of the day, the resident workshop director came up to me and said, “You know, Steve, we’ve never had that problem here before.” That made me feel so much better. Thanks very much.