their lips.��� I can���t help but feel there is a little bit of Provincetown
in Capernaum.
NM: How can I pretend I didn���t think of Provincetown once
while writing that passage? But Capernaum was known for that.
CB: I love the vivid lipstick made from ���juice of red berries.���
You said once that talking about religion, for you, was more
embarrassing than talking about sex. Another episode I love is
when the disciples come to Christ, depressed about their failures
to cast out demons. They lack His skill. It is a skill that exhausts
Jesus. He can���t cast out too many demons. There is a limit to His
power. His disciples are sometimes effective, but more often they
are not as good as He is in casting out demons, predicting the
future, or curing lepers.
NM: That goes directly to my notion of a divine economy.
CB: Economy?
NM: Economy. In other words, in Tough Guys one of the happiest
moments I had ��� I didn���t write the book here but I edited it here
��� was when the father, Dougy Madden, was talking to the son
about pro football and handicappers. The father says, ���Listen, if
God handicapped the football spread, He���d be right 80 percent
of the time.��� The son asks how he arrived at that. The father
says, ���Well, the best handicappers, for a little while, can be up
to 75 percent for a few weeks, not more. So I figure if they do
75 percent, God can do 80 percent, no trouble at all.��� Madden���s
son asks why God can���t do 99 percent or 100 percent. Madden
says, ���Because it���s easy to do 80 percent. He just passes over the
teams at night and He sees what their energy is and He says the
HYLAND
18
