His body was propped up by the pole in such a way that it struck a kind of dismal, defeated pose, so I said something about contemplating the dark depths of life. That was the chum. My goal as a Christian is not to follow whatever I think my feelings are telling me, but to do those things I ought to be doing, and I don't need a personalized message for that. I just tossed it out to see what would happen. I said it in a joking way, so my comment could have been brushed off.
Life is hard.
I had a choice at that point. But I took one more step. The chum brought him in. Now I'm going to give him a piece of bait with a hook in it. If he picks it up, fine, and if he doesn't, that's fine, too.