"Targets..............................."

I wonder: Which of us would play a game of darts, back to the board, simply flinging missiles over our shoulder, content with wherever they might perchance hit? After all, isn't the bulls-eye the whole point of the game? Who pulls up to the gas pump, inserts their credit card and then just stands there spraying the whole car with the nozzle rather than inserting it into the tank? What woman gets out the vacuum cleaner and then tries to plug it into the electrical outlet by throwing the cord at the wall? And yet how many walk through Christianity without connecting to the inner well, wading in the shallow water when all the while the Spirit beckons us, deep calling unto deep?........

Posting on Facebook isn’t something this old man does with any real regularity; but, whether out of pondering Wednesday evening’s talk with the men at the mission, knowing this Sunday we’ll be talking with the kids at the Detention Center, or an article read at "Killing the Buddha" wherein the mysteries of life and the universe were plumbed, the above thoughts came forth, my mind yet considering the whole scenario. Is it really enough to simply acknowledge Christ, to verbally give promise of commitment without spiritually taking up pursuit, to enjoy the beach without taking the plunge? Perhaps the fact that the faith, in America at least, is encountering both reduction in our numbers and aggression against our message, can be greatly attributed to our witness coming forth just as hostile, out of our heads instead of our bellies. If the Holy Ghost hasn’t been locked up and lost in a closet, He has been deemed our own to control, believers building their own fire rather than waiting for it to fall from Heaven. My preacher in Pensacola put it this way in one of his sermons: “If you’ve really got the anointing, you don’t have to push it!” It’s where we’re at in this: Some force it; some fail to even know it’s there. As a body, we’re much too busy promoting our theology to point to the pool. I recognize it’s a stumble down the path, for the Institution as well as the individual; but, oh, the people we hurt through our humanity. Thank God for the inner oasis that meets me as I go……