Mike Harper
89.5 KVNE Morning Show

I don’t condone being unfriendly, but I have to admire this Dave Furyk’s bravery. Sometimes I feel like a performing flea in church when we’re told to turn to our neighbor and say what he says. It’s a funny tradition and humans have followed it for years. Ha!

Dave Furyk, introvert and regular attendee at Granite Waters Church, has never thought of himself as a hero—but that’s exactly what he’s being called by onlookers who witnessed him stage a brave, quiet rebellion against turning and greeting his neighbor during service Sunday morning.

When the worship leader finished playing “Open the Eyes of My Heart” and smiled at the congregation, Furyk knew what was coming next. And on this particular Sunday, he was having no part of it.

“Good morning, Granite Waters!” the worship leader said enthusiastically. “Why don’t we all turn to our neighbor and say, ‘Good morning! God loves you!’”

Witnesses looked on in amazement as Dave, like a pillar in the midst of the storm, sat down in his spot and stared dead ahead—refusing to so much as look at the older woman to his left or the visiting couple to his right. And when a churchgoer standing behind him tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention while saying the witty greeting, Furyk didn’t so much as flinch.

“Here I sit, I can do no other. God help me,” he is said to have uttered during the ordeal, which lasted a full minute according to some witnesses.

Furyk didn’t budge the whole time.

What a saint, and what a story. Here’s to Dave Furyk—quiet rebel, brave reformer, stoic man of God. We would all do well to be more like him.
Source: The Babylon Bee