Jess surged slightly ahead. Taking the hint, Phil and I picked up our pace a little. We rounded a turn and met with a slight headwind. I pulled ahead and let Jess and Phil fall in behind me. We’d be running in this direction all the way back to my place, and we would take turns pulling and drafting — either blocking the wind or running in the lee of the lead runner.

“So,” I called back over my shoulder, “what did you tell him?”

“You know,” Phil said, “that... um... that he was a sinner and Jesus died for his sins, and how... well, how he needed Jesus.”

I glanced back again. “In other words, you told him he’s totally inadequate, and you’ve got the cure.”

“Now, come on...” Phil blustered. But after a long moment of silence, he conceded, “Well — yeah. I guess I did.”

“Then no wonder.”

“But Phil’s got to do that,” Jess pointed out, her voice steady. I envied her. Even without looking, I could tell that she was fresh, not even slightly winded. The woman has lungs. “We’re commanded to do that. It’s in the Bible.”

“It is?”

“Mark 16:15.”

She said it so quickly that she must have been primed for this conversation. I wondered why it had taken her 4.7 miles to bring it up.

“Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone, everywhere,” she concluded.

“Okay.” I nodded out of habit, even though all they could see was the back of my head. “And what’s the good news?”

“That’s a silly question, Ron. It’s in the next verse,” Jess said. “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved, but anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. Jesus died for your sins. That’s the good news. Everybody knows that.”

“Everybody does,” I agreed. “But what if everybody’s wrong?”

I sensed a change in our running formation and glanced back over my shoulder.

I was running by myself.

I stopped and turned around. Fifty feet back, Phil was bent over with his hands on both knees, huffing, and Jess was just sort of standing there, glaring at me.

“It’s cool,” I assured them. “I haven’t turned atheist. I haven’t even turned universalist. And I can explain. But first, come on, you two; we have another half mile. Let’s pick it up again before we cool down.”