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Few people intimidate me. I don’t seem to meet many who even impress me. But when I find a woman who intimidates me, I know I’d better pay attention. I might fall in love with her.

It started when I was a young teen. Girls had just been interesting classmates or neighborhood friends until then. And then I met one girl — near the beginning of the eighth grade — who left me nervous and speechless.

The boy who was trained to be socially charming was suddenly a babbling idiot when she was around.

I understand now that this is a common pattern for straight guys. As a boy gets old enough to be attracted to girls, something changes for him. Even if he’s always been confident, this rush of attraction and need overwhelms him. That’s the way it was for me. That’s the way I’ve heard others describe it.

What I didn’t realize was that this intimidation was always going to be the first stage of falling in love with a woman — no matter how old or sophisticated or confident I got.

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“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
— Brennan Manning, “The Ragamuffin Gospel”

When I was in college, I somehow landed a contract to produce an ad campaign for the largest Baptist church in Tuscaloosa.

I wasn’t qualified for the job, but the father of a friend of mine was an influential deacon at the church. She had told him about me — and apparently convinced him I would be great — so he approached me about the work. I wrote and produced a couple of television spots, several radio spots, newspaper ads and printed flyers.

I’m sorry to say that my work was very forgettable.

I was naive enough — and arrogant enough — to believe I was smart enough to sell faith in a new way. I was studying marketing and various forms of communication in college, so I became convinced the church would be smart to use modern marketing methods. It all made sense.

I now understand how wrong I was, but it seems that most of the modern church makes the same mistake I made many years ago.

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Lucy made a friend tonight while we went to fill my car with gasoline.

“Hey, I like your dog!” cried out an exuberant little blond boy from 30 feet away.

He had just pumped gasoline for his mom’s car and was on his way to the restroom when he spotted us. I greeted him briefly and went about my business. Two minutes later, he was out of the restroom and clearly wanted to meet Lucy, but wasn’t sure what to say.

“What’s your dog’s name?” he asked.

After I introduced him to Lucy, he started telling me about the 11 animals that he and his mother have. He told me that feeding all those dogs and cats was so much that his mother had to help him with it.

He told me his name was Asher and he asked my name. Then he noticed I had a camera, so he asked if he could be in a picture with Lucy.

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