Ned has attended the same church for more than four decades. He was, by all accounts, a crabby little kid who grew into a crabby young man. After his religious conversion, he joined the church and became a crabby Christian.

He gives no evidence of uncertainty in his faith. He believes the Bible from cover to cover, and he believes the cover is genuine leather. But there doesn't seem to be any record over the last forty years of Ned ever changing his disposition, his mind, his expression, or his pew.

He complained to me one day about the lack of commitment of young people in the church, and he launched into a litany of his own daily devotional habits.

But Ned, I thought, You're still crabby. You've crabbed your way through 14,200 quiet times without changing. What's the point of doing all this religious activity and still being the crabgrass in the ecclesiastical lawn?

Harold, on the other hand, had the kind of experience people write books about. Marital problems, a history of substance abuse, ...