“Preacher, why don’t you tell me what you want me to do?” She stood with a frown on her face, while the rest of the churchgoers shuffled out the door. The preacher was taken aback. The sermon had seemed to go well. For once, he hadn’t tripped over his tongue or turned down an obscure alley. Yet the woman wouldn’t let him off the hook.

“I’ve wanted to ask that question for some time,” she said. “As you know, I come to church just about every week. I have heard a lot of interesting sermons, and learned some things about the Bible that I never knew before I began coming to this church. But today, I finally found the words to ask you a question that has nagged at the back of my mind.”

“What’s that?” said the minister.

She said, “Preacher, why don’t you tell me what you want me to do?”

Is t…