| the parable of bullhorn man | | Date Created: Nov 21, 2006, 11:32 AM |
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Once upon a time there was a would-be writer.... no I mean... there was a guy who stood out out on the street corner in the center of town. He's got a bullhorn and he's reading from the King James. He's got a reasonably acceptable reading voice (which coaching it could maybe turn into a good reading voice) and he honestly loves God's word so very much. One day his publisher ... no I mean ... another Christian on the street comes up to him and says "Look, they're not listening. It's not relevant to them. You've got to talk to people not just at them. Jesus met people where they were at."
So the poor guy decides to try changing his act. Less King James. Instead, as people walk by he looks folks in the eyes and says, "Let's talk about you. Are you going to heaven or hell? Repent! Give up your wicked ways!"
Finally, he stops and thinks, "This still isn't working; I need to change even more radically." So he turns off the bullhorn, right? And he walks up to someone, anyone, and he says, "Forget my agenda and pre-conceived ideas. How can I help you? What are you here for today?" And she says, "I could use some help with clothes shopping, I guess." And he says "What are you looking for and why?" And she tells him and he listens, hard. She needs something smart and professional for a job interview. And she says, "Why do you want to help?" and he says "Because I'm a Christian and that's what we're supposed to do." She replies, "Hmpf. I don't need some Bible changing my life around but I do need a new suit. If you want to help, cool."
So they go together into this big up-market department store and he patiently waits while she tries things on, commenting and suggesting accessories, never talking explicitly about God or even using the word 'thou', only talking clothes. And eventually she buys this suit she feels really happy about and goes off to her interview.
She doesn't get the job. After listening to her, the interviewers think what she really needed was to change her attitude more than she needed to change her clothes and, anyway, the pieces of her outfit all clashed. Bullhorn man had an okayish reading voice and a love for the God, but his taste in clothes was just as bad as hers.
But the news wasn't all bad because the job was a crummy one anyway with a company that made money by selling things to poor people who didn't really need them and exploited its employees and treated them badly, so she never knew it but she would have been unhappier if she had gotten the job.
Not that it mattered because that night the world came to an end.
The End.
Now back to my book proposal and sample chapter. |
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