Top Five Reasons I Continue to do the Occasional Sunday Morning Talk for my Evangelical Friends

(in no particular order, and off the top of my head, sort of)

1. it makes me wrestle with things that would otherwise never come up.

2. come on, where else can I get 50 people to shut up and listen to me talk for 15 minutes? (Yes, Jared, I'm done in 15 tops these days -- sorry you were around for the other extreme.) I'm ashamed to admit it, but I dig that.

3. it gives me a record of my...what's the word, Ted?...suspicions over the course of time. Like a kind of a journal. Frequently I look back and wonder what the hell I was thinking, but there it is like...like...like footprints in the sand. Ah...

4. I enjoy writing immensely and don't seem to make the time to do it without some kind of deadline in front of me. A real one. One where if I'm not ready to go I stand up in front of a roomfull of people and look like an ass. [Interestingly, I don't seem to be able to write much of anything else. I've tried to write stories -- even made an abortive start at something a bit longer -- but for some reason I can't build any momentum. I can't even write anything interesting for my Tuesday people. It's almost like I have to have something to push against -- like trying to move without any friction (that's the metaphor I'm after, isn't it Warren?) So maybe it keeps me productive.]

5. Maybe something way down low inside me thinks that someone there will hear something helpful.

Thanks for asking, hermano.