"Target-shooting..................."

Yesterday morning, opportunity presented itself for a descent to the lobby area of our condo, a place where a man can get alone with his lap-top, check his e-mail, and perhaps catch up with a few friends. Instead, as it happened, I got "mugged" by a Morman. The only other person in the room was a gentleman, my age, seated there with his own hook-up to the Internet; and, when he spoke, in jest, of the rainy weather outside, I opened the door for polite conversation. He, though, simply stuck his foot in the gap and went for my jugular. For twenty minutes or so, he ignored my reference to already being solidly anchored in my own beliefs, my willingness to accept the possibility of his being correct about a few things even though we disagreed, and was still trying to convince me, as I shook his hand in leaving, of there being three levels of Heaven to which, no doubt, his individual ilk was assigned the highest elevation. At the moment, though, all I wanted was the fifth floor.....

Years ago, a colleague at the railroad, a Christian, but of another flavor than my own particular scoop from the freezer, continually pestered me as to the error of my conversion. "Three in one" was literally the singular foundition of his bunch and, upon that theory all else rested. If a man had not been baptized in the name of Jesus, only, you were hell-bound, condemned forever. Still wet in my own walk, yet fully convinced in my experience thus far, I saw no reason not to at least humor this fellow and so approached my pastor about a new immersion, if for no other reason than to make everybody happy. The shepherd of my flock, however, got quite upset to hear such a request, leaving me concerned as to what, indeed, truth really was. In the end, peace about the matter came to me in a prayer closet. The daily harassment at work ceased when Frank, one night, gave me a tract with ninety-nine Biblical verses supposedly supporting his tenets and I returned it with ninety-nine of the same, tit-for-tat, counter-balancing the theology.....

The call to witness of Christ is in my heart as well. Thirty-seven years in this, though, has taught me well that, like most other aspects of the Gospel, connection is established through Him, not by any forcing of the message on my part. Whether one speaks of bringing forth the Word or manifesting a tangible extension of His love, the proof is in the pudding: Jesus, Himself, "seals the deal". In the book I'm currently re-reading, Yancey quotes T.S. Eliott as saying: "The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we first started and know the place for the first time". While I can envision there possibly being such a future point in my eternal existence, there nonetheless already abides within me an "island" that goes with me day by day, an oasis to which I frequently retreeat, a well that often overflows the vessel reminding me of its reality, surprising me in its grace. Always the flow ministers to me; but sometimes it moves through me and beyond me,and two, three, a room, become one in Him. In that flow, I trust.....