I have a good friend who once in a gentle critique (at least I think it was meant to be gentle) said that I ‘shoot from the hip’. She meant that often I don’t take the time to aim with some kind of planned purpose. I come up with some idea (like this blog) and just let it go and sometimes-good things happen. Sometimes not.

Let’s just say that I am impulsive and probably compulsive. I don’t keep a planning book. I tried that. It was boring. Sometimes I think that spiritual impulsivity is not such a bad thing. A lot of people sit on their duffs waiting to be motivated to do something for God. I remember back in college we encountered some poor people and I suggested in an Inter-Varsity setting that we just get out there and help them. But the leader said we needed to pray about it. I am all for prayer but what if God is constantly working in our lives leading us by circumstances and events and we miss that by thinking we have to wait and pray. Some things are just evidently God at work waiting for us to join Him.

I was talking to that same friend I mentioned previously and she was telling me that upon hearing of the plight of the Syrian refugees she wanted to open her home to them. Actually it was a second home that she owned. Now there’s a woman after my own heart, shooting from the hip.

But here’s the thing. She and I are straight shooters, people not swerving to the left or right and who can be depended upon to hit the mark, most of the time, people who can be trusted.

I am the kind of person who thinks while he talks and sometimes I can get into trouble but most of the time people understand where I am coming from and that there is no guile to my words. I figure that after a good long straight shooting talk we will arrive at a good conclusion.

The disciple Peter shot from the hip and almost drowned during one episode of his life with Jesus but he kept on going and even through his failures his faithfulness to Jesus prevailed because Jesus himself was praying for Peter’s faith to prevail.

Some people are introverts simply meaning that they take a long time to process things in their heads before making a decision. I guess we need both kinds of people.

But for me, I would rather shoot from the hip than to have no guns. (Speaking spiritually here, not politically)