Sunday afternoon, after the morning service, Max sat in his room researching the website for the Faith for You Ministries. Before going to the Bible study and hearing the views of Brad Clavin, he never knew that there were people out there with these beliefs. And he certainly never knew they would have such a large following. One thing became clear as he read through the many sermons of Arthur Clavin—all of Brad’s ideas were from his father, most of them recited verbatim.

  Max’s dad walked up the stairs and stood by his open bedroom door then knocked on the doorframe. Max looked up and motioned for him to come in, which he did and took a seat at the end of the bed.

  “Doing homework?”

  “No,” Max answered. “I’m reading over this website about this preacher and his ministries, and I can’t believe what I’m reading.”

  The reverend was curious. “Who is it?”

  “His name is Arthur Clavin. He’s from New York, and his church is a non-denominational church called Faith for You.”

  “Oh, Dr. Clavin, huh?” his dad replied.

  “You know him?” asked Max.

  “I know his organization. Every so often, someone contacts us from their church to pitch the idea of us becoming a Faith for You branch. They claim it will make us more profitable even after giving them their cut.”

  Max asked, “Have you studied any of his teachings?”

  His dad shook his head. “No, but whenever I go to the conferences, I hear a lot of preachers talking about his teachings, some even saying his teachings are borderline heresy. Why are you so interested all of a sudden?”

  Max told his dad everything. He told him about Brad and the things he argued about in Bible study. He told him about the aggressive and rude way he argued his points. He read off parts of sermons from the internet that coincided with Brad’s views. He told him about how Bible study, in only two sessions, had evolved into almost a competition between him and Brad. He told him how some of the other students treated him like a big shot in class and how it made him feel uncomfortable.

  When Max finished, his dad, who had been listening intensely, asked a simple question. “Do you enjoy going?”

  Max had to think on that one. “I think that’s the problem; I enjoy it too much.”

  His dad smiled and asked, “Meaning?”

  Max knew his dad understood where he was going with this, but was not going to help at all. “Meaning I might need that peer pressure sermon again,” Max laughed. “I feel like I’m getting off the path when I’m in there. It’s a great feeling to have people stroking your ego. It’s a feeling I’ve never had before. But I try to keep reminding myself why I’m going to college in the first place. It is not for my glory, but for His. It is not for worldly gains, like being the champion Bible debater or anything like that.”

  His dad nodded then surprised Max by getting up and heading out without commenting on what Max was talking about. Instead, as he walked toward the door, he said, “Okay, well, I’ll see you when you come down.”

  He had gotten all the way out of the door and out of sight before Max was able to focus. “Dad? Wait!”

  “Yes?” he asked innocently as he poked his head back inside.

  Max was puzzled. “Well, aren’t you going to say anything?”

  “About what?” his dad continued the fallacy.

  “About what I just said?”

  “I don’t have anything to say,” his dad replied. “I don’t have any ideas or words that could make it any clearer than you just did. Sounds to me like you know what to do, but just needed someone to say it out loud to, in which case my job is done and I think I did it very well.” He smiled and walked downstairs.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  ***

  Max sat across from Julie in the cafeteria. They had discovered that they each had the 10:00 a.m. slot free on Mondays and had decided to spend this time together. Max was deciding how to broach the subject with Julie and only hoped it would go as smoothly as it did with his dad.

  “I think this was a good idea―meeting here every Monday morning,” Max began.

  Julie smiled and nodded to signify her concurrence.

  “I was thinking also that you could come to our house for lunch and dinner more often,” he continued.

  Julie’s smile got bigger.

  “And I thought maybe we could hang out on the weekends, you know, studying and maybe going to a movie once in a while.”

  Overload. Julie’s face began to show signs of suspicion.

  “Is that not okay?” Max asked.

  “Yeah, it’s fine,” she replied. “I’m just a little surprised.”

  Max took a sip of his soda. “I’m not going to be attending Bible study anymore.”

  “Wow. Does it really bother you that much?” Julie asked.

  Max nodded.

  “Then I understand,” she said. A few seconds passed and she added, “Jenny is going to miss you.”

  Max nodded but then saw the devious expression on Julie’s face. “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing,” she smirked. “She’s just going to miss you.”

  “I’m sure she will,” Max said. “We both started at the same time, so we were both the newcomers.”

  “Yeah, that’s it.” Julie continued to smirk.

  “What are you getting at?”

  Julie looked at Max with her eyes wide open. “She has a crush on you.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Max said, his line of sight moving from Julie to the table as if he was trying to figure this out. “Do you think so?”

  “Of course, I think so,” Julie laughed. “I’m the one who just said it.”

  They each went back to their drinks and sat in silence for a few moments.

  “Wait a minute,” Julie suddenly snapped. “Is that what all the ‘we can do other things together’ was about?”

  Max nodded.

  “Why did you feel like you had to tell me this way, you know, that you had decided to stop going to Bible study?” Julie asked.

  Max shrugged. “The last time I mentioned not coming back, you used that to get me to continue. You said I should keep going for no other reason than I get to see you there.”

  “What?” Julie was shocked. “Are you saying I used a guilt trip? I most certainly did not.”

  Max was stunned. Did she really not remember?

  Now it was Julie’s eyes that shifted back and forth as she searched her memory. “Oh my gosh. I really did, didn’t I?”

  Max smiled as if to offer amends.

  “Sorry,” she whispered with a grin.

  Noticing the clock, they each got up to go to their eleven o’clock classes. They said their goodbyes and turned and walked in different directions. Then Julie stopped, cocked her head sideways, and turned back around.

  “Hey!” she yelled.

  Max, who had already gotten about forty feet away, stopped and turned back around also.

  Julie had a big smile on her face. “You could have just admitted you’re gaga over me.”

  “I guess so,” Max conceded. “But you’re smart. I knew you would figure it out.”

  ***

  The rest of the semester went smoothly. Julie explained to Professor Stoner about why Max wasn’t attending his Bible studies, and when Max did meet him in the halls, he always smiled and gave a friendly wave to Max.

  A few weeks later, Julie was at the main auditorium on a Saturday. She carried a stack of papers in her arms. It was registration for the next semester, and she was again working as an administrator. She noticed it was about twenty-five minutes before 8:00 a.m., so she had time to drop off her forms at her computer and grab a cup of coffee. She walked into the auditorium and immediately saw an all-too-familiar scene that made her laugh. The room was completely empty except for one person standing in her line—Max. She set the papers beside her computer, took a seat, and looked at her friend who stood there sheepishly.

  Max shuffled his feet and stared at the floor to keep from looking Julie in the eye. He was afraid she would burst into laughter at any moment. Seconds kept ticking away and Max began to tap his feet and look all around the room as if nothing was pressing.

  Julie shook her head and motioned for him to come on up. “Come on; I haven’t got all day.”

  Max smiled and walked up and handed her his list.

  “You are a piece of work. You know that?” Julie couldn’t help but make fun of Max’s dedication to getting into Physics 1. “Let’s get you signed up for Professor Stoner’s class.”

  Max gave her the list and she typed it in.

  “All set,” Julie said.

  Max thanked her and joined her for coffee until she had to return to her registration duties.

  He was finally signed up for Professor Stoner’s class. He wondered what the Near Impossible Assignment would be. He knew what some of them had been in the past. He witnessed the one about walking on water and Rollo had filled him in on the one about propelling a sheet of paper three hundred feet. Others he had learned about were using a single two-by-four, screws, and an empty two-liter soda bottle to make a car that would propel itself at least fifty feet on water pressure, standing on four eggs without breaking them, and propelling a grape through a sheet of tin.

  He could only imagine what his assignment would be.