No matter where you’re from, you probably think that your hometown is the closest thing to heaven on earth. I grew up in rural Arkansas in the Ouachita National Forest, and I couldn’t wait to leave and go out into the great big world, but I admit that it was a wonderful place to be a kid. I’m not alone in thinking that. Just ask anyone I grew up with. The thing is, almost everyone feels this way about the place they grew up, and some people love their hometowns so much that they choose to never leave. Then again, sometimes people travel the whole world over and find “home” in a place they never expected it. In the joke below, you’ll meet a man who traveled everywhere to different churches, but he got the surprise of a lifetime in a church in Tennessee. Enjoy!
A man in Topeka, Kansas, decided to write a book about churches around the country. He started by flying to San Francisco, and started working east from there.
Going to a very large church, he began taking photographs and making notes. He spotted a golden telephone on the vestibule wall and was intrigued with a sign which read “$10,000 a minute.”
Seeking out the pastor he asked about the phone and the sign. The Pastor answered that this golden phone is, in fact, a direct line to Heaven and if he pays the price he can talk directly to God.
The man thanked the pastor and continued on his way. As he continued to visit churches in Seattle, Atlanta, Greensboro, Chicago, Milwaukee, and all around the United States, he found more phones with the same sign, and the same answer from each pastor.
Finally, he arrived in Tennessee. Upon entering a church in Paris, Tennessee behold, he saw the usual golden telephone. But THIS time, the sign read “Calls: 35 cents.” Fascinated, he asked to talk to the pastor. “Reverend, I have been in cities all across the country and in each church I have found this golden telephone and have been told it is a direct line to Heaven and that I could talk to God, but, in the other churches the cost was $10,000 a minute. Your sign reads 35 cents a call. Why?”
The pastor, smiling benignly, replied, “Son, you’re in Tennessee now…..it’s a local call.”
Image: Michael Morse, via Pexels
