How converted are you?

A little boy fell out of bed night after night and woke the household with his frightened crying.
Exasperated his Dad finally scolded, 'Why did you fall out of bed again?'
The little boy, sniffled, 'I stayed too close to where i got in.'.

Conversions happen
Growing up I saw hundreds and hundreds of the then Baby Boomers get 'converted'. They went forward at Billy Graham Crusades, Baptist Youth Rallies, Youth For Christ Meetings, Easter camps, summer camps, May holiday camps, church services and what not.

Many were baptised. Many joined a church. Some became pastors, priests, leaders, missionaries, translators, medical workers, charity workers. Most became office workers, bank clerks, tax agents, plumbers, metal workers, teachers, singles, and nice mums and dads.

Like me, you might be one of them.

Conversions don't go very far
They stopped breaking the law. They stopped living immorally. They stopped dabbling in the occult. They stopped getting drunk. They didn't take drugs. Heck! Some of them even stopped going to dances! (Some even stopped saying Heck.)

The aim seems to have been to get us to become nice – middle class – polite, pleasant and perspicacious. That's a kind of conversion I suppose but is it the real deal? To stop being 'bad' is one thing but to be outrageously 'good' is quite different.

There's a level of conversion to which most 'converts' have never risen. It's in the realm of character and it reveals itself in attitudes, mind-sets, casual conversations, the shows we watch on TV, the comments we make on Facebook, the prides and prejudices we express about refugees, homosexuals, women, men, gun ownership, drug addicts, Muslims
, prostitutes, poor people, homeless people, the music we choose, the things we meditate on in the newspaper and the evening news, the junk we buy and the cars we drive and the homes we live in.

These are nasty days
It's a strategic time to ask how far in you've got

Anyway, to infinity and beyond.
Live long and prosper.

Love –

Colin