Here is a story from my college days, from long, long ago, about a Dale far, far away! I was probably nineteen going on thirteen, or something like that! A clean-cut, all-American, honor role student . . . “Not ! ! !”. If you believe that, I still have some Florida water front view sand for sale in my truck’s back seat and floorboards! Or, may y y y b e e e I was a long-haired, dope-smoking, fun-seeking, hippie-type “dude” walking on a very broad road towards disaster? Anyywayy, whatever, I was recruited my freshman year to sell dictionaries door-to-door for the summer. Go Figure??
The Mystery
It was, looking back, the beginning of my “ministry” training as a snake oil salesman. When school was out, we headed off to Nashville for a week to learn to sell. We took over several floors of an old downtown hotel for the week. Everywhere I turned, there were posters and banners with “REMEMBER THE PONY!” It was like a mystery that none of the leaders would explain.
Finally, in the last session on Friday night, we had a special speaker take the podium. He was an older man in a finely tailored suit who carried himself like a gentleman, sharp and refined. He was there to inspire us before our trip to the mission fields of West Virginia. He had made millions in direct sales and had that smooth, easy manner of a Baptist preacher in a bar! At last, we finally got to The Pony.
The Pony
It was one of those going to heaven stories about a young boy who arrives in heaven, not one of those Peter or Judas at the gate kind, but a serious one about expectations for the days ahead. It begins with a greeter walking down a long hall with the young man and coming to a large door which he opens for them to enter. The room was filled with every sweet candy, cake, and ice cream you could imagine to enjoy. The greeter left him in the room for a few hours and returned. When he opened the door, he looked down to see the little boy sitting in the middle of the room with icing, chocolate, and ice cream all over his face, bored and unhappy.
The next room they enter is filled with toys. Toys of every kind you could imagine and once again the man leaves him to return several hours later. Similarly, the boy is sitting in the room with toy boxes opened and broken toys all over the floor. This time the boy is even more disgruntled and maybe even a bit more upset or even mad.
Once again, they moved down the hall to another room. This time when the door is opened, there in the center of the room was the biggest, perhaps even the world’s most enormous pile of horse manure the boy had ever seen! Again, the greeter leaves to return later to check on the boy.
On this return, he is stunned. There, in the middle of this pile of dung, the boy is digging away slinging it everywhere. There was sh*t on the walls, and sh*t on the ceiling and floors, and sh*t all over the boy! It was everywhere, and the boy was laughing, excited, and glowing with expectancy!
The Truth
The boy turns to the man amid his joy and yells, “If there is this much sh*t, there must be a pony in here somewhere!!!”
This story illustrates real Christianity, PEOPLE in real relationships, and real-life, not the snake oil we’ve been sold! Go Figure!!!
If you have not read yhwh it is part one of this thought.