A little puzzle....he wrote for Rolling Stone....lived for a while in Pittsburgh....served some time in jail....and coined the term....'banana republic." He may be most well-known for his short story The Gift Of The Magi. OK....it wasn't the Rolling Stone that we know of....but an obscure weekly from about 1900. O. Henry....pen name....wrote another short story that I find interesting. It takes place in New York City around the turn of the 19th century.
I've traveled a fair amount around the world....but I haven't been to New York City since the fall of 1965....during the World's Fair! I can distinctly remember the trip up there as two songs....and two songs only....are etched into mind mind from that drive....The Rolling Stones....Get Off My Cloud.....and Barry McGuire's....Eve of Destruction. (I think I could have penned those lyrics) McGuire later became a born again Christian....who is somewhat famous for his children's album....Bullfrogs And Butterflies. We took our young son to see him do his children's concert many years ago....and it was a great blessing.Back to O. Henry and his short story....The Cop And The Anthem. He would be what we today call a homeless man. Soapy was his name....and he had a plan every year when it got cold....that he would get arrested....and at least be warm and fed in jail for the winter months. So he once again tried to get arrested....but try as he might he could not....as O. Henry humorously tells it....and in frustration stops in a Christian church....and has a spiritual epiphany....he would turn his life around. He leaves the church....and is arrested for vagrancy....and sentenced to three months in jail.... which he no longer wanted.
I came across this short story tonight....believe it or not....while looking for a YouTube of Pat Boone singing....This Land Is Mine....(The Exodus Song). Consequently I watched a segment of a 1952 film on five of O. Henry's stories...titled....O. Henry's Full House....one of which was The Cop And The Anthem....which starred....are you ready.....that famous film pair....Charles Laughton and Marilyn Monroe! Google it....it's only about twenty minutes long.
What came to my mind was this.....we live life knowing that we will have to answer to God someday for constructing an interpretation of His Word....around our own desires....an easy believism....a 'cheap grace' as Bonhoeffer called it....or at least we determine not to research it....because we might find what we don't want to find.....that we have to be born again....whatever that is....but it doesn't sound too good...(clue...it's the most wonderful thing in the world)....only sometimes just as we are ready to really see what God's Word tells us....we are called to account by God. Today is the day friend! It's not a very good analogy here....but hey that's my mind.
