My wife and I dropped in to a little pizza joint where you can get pizza by the slice last night after work. They’ve got a killer white pizza that goes a long way in making the tummy happy, but is light enough that you don’t revisit it a couple of hours later.

We ran into a friend of ours and his family and we chitchatted with them for a few moments before going to our table. As they left they stopped by our table for a moment to say good night. We waved them out and continued our meal.

When I called the waiter for the check, he said, “Sorry, but I can’t help you.”

Strange response.

So I asked the obvious, “why not?”

“Because your friend paid your bill.”

I’ll confess that the sense that washed over me was one of “Wow!” It made me feel good; someone was thoughtful enough to pay for my supper and that caught me off-guard.

Isn’t that the way we should be to the world around us? Because we are vessels in which the Spirit dwells, shouldn’t that power be like a .357 magnum through a Ritz cracker? Shouldn’t our presence in the world be akin to bringing a gun to a knife fight?

As an acquaintance of mine said the other day, “Christianity sucks, unless it is real.”