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169 National Prayer Breakfast Conventioneers from thirty-seven countries throng the banquet hall to hear the message. A clergyman tells God to bless the fruit and rolls. The President speaks up for Reagan, Martin Luther King, and having faith in faith. Love is the common theme, most of it touching, all of it frank, unburdening and lengthy. If faith is saying so, then this is faith. The problem is that I must be the problem. I’ve always thought that faith declaimed too publicly destroys the mystery. Years back, when Brother Antoninus yelled at listeners to hear the voice of Jesus in them, Maura whispered, “The Jesus in me doesn’t talk that way.” Later, when I saw a placard bannering, “Honk, if you love Jesus,” I thought of Maura’s words and passed in silence . . . Jesus in fact spoke Aramaic in Jerusalem, 170 foretold uninterrupted life and sealed it with a resurrection. If He asked me to honk in praise of that, I’d honk all day. But rising from the dead for me seems honk enough since no one’s done it since, and no one did it earlier or ever. Others might disagree, and that’s their right. But there’s an inner voice I hear that’s one on one and never out of date. It’s strongest when it’s most subdued. I’ll take my Jesus straight. ...

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