The Minimalist. Part Two
Everybody’s screaming, and yelling and because of all the chaos it’s a struggle to hear what these people are saying. As I try to blend in, and stay unnoticed, I hear murmuring that because of President Obama and a speech that he gave, this is happening. Supposedly he said in one of his speeches that the nation is stuck in a congressional stalemate and how now we need to come together to avoid default. Someone even said in his last speech that the word Godspeed was used. Hmm. Undoubtedly the most hated president in the history of presidential elections; to some he’s a perfect scapegoat, and the reason for this darkness that is rapidly growing in the sky above us. Some have no intentions on accepting any responsibility for this; not even their own doings. Wonder what their carbon footprints look like? People sometimes fear what they don’t understand; and accepting this fear to some is more frightening than the fear itself.
I’m dressed in tattered jeans with a plaid long sleeve shirt, complete with baseball cap, tennis shoes and backpack, packed to the rim with supplies. I’m headed to the side of an abandoned building because I’m thirsty and I see a broken water spicket, that’s spitting out water. I’m frantically trying to fill several bottles up with water for this trip back up the mountain and drink at the same time. People are displaying erratic behavior. Just wandering around the town disheveled. I pull out my Swiss army knife and slide it in my pocket; all while trying to fill these daggone bottles. Suddenly, there is an explosion of some sort, KABOOM! A deafening sound. Feels like my eardrums are splitting in half. Oh My God. Help me Holy Spirit. I dropped my bottle, unable to get the top on the last one. People are scarred, you see it in the sky, but nobody knows where it’s coming from. The sky is darker now than ever before; soot and a deathlike grayness take over above us. People are running, trampling everything under their feet. Sirens are going off. I’ve gotta run, I’ve gotta go! I’ve gotta get back to my family in the mountains. I turn to make a mad dash to the other side of the road to cut through the foothills.
When I turned around, I slammed into a force that’s dressed exactly like me. It knocks me to my butt, and I’m crab crawling trying to regain some balance and control of my body. I try to get up, only it’s right in my face now. The farther I move from it, the closer it gets in my face. From the baseball cap down to the New Balance tennis shoes. Dressed EXACTLY like me. What is going on? Why can’t I move? What the? T.B.C.
The Minimalist. Part Three
I am scared, because people are running all around me, a heard of them, yet I’m flat on my butt with this force, this presence directly in my face; nose to nose. But I’m not being trampled. I tried to regain movement, get my balance. I’m usually quick on my feet and prepared. I’m a theorist, that and my faith are two things I didn’t give up when I became a minimalist. But as hard as I tried to think right now, and as hard as I tried to force my way past this massive presence; I couldn’t get around it, I couldn’t move, but others were moving right along as if I were the only one to see this force dressed in tattered jeans and a plaid shirt. I screamed who are you?” The force answered “I am the rock and the fortress and the deliverer; I am the strength, in whom you have trusted”
Whoa. I’m so scared right about now. I just know I’m not going to make it back to those mountains, which seem to be in arms reach. As much chaos is going on around me, it is peacefully quiet while I’m in the presence of this presence. While I’m having this encounter with this force, I was also being moved closer to the mountains. A quiet whirlwind in slow motion is the only way I can describe it. “What are you doing?” I asked when the force took me. He answered, “Do not be afraid, for you have been given a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control”.
Suddenly I was dropped, but landed softly and closer to my neck of the woods where my family and I reside. I asked, shaking uncontrollably, “are you?” The force said to me “Jeremiah 29:11-14” and then the force was replaced with serenity. I’m now in an atmosphere similar to when a baby wakes up from a nap and can not communicate the dream they just had to their caregivers. A childlike trance.
Nobody’s going to believe this when I walk into our camp was my thought. But I was mistaken. My mom noticed immediately upon seeing me that there had been an encounter of some sorts between me and something or someone. She was walking around with her bible, reading some things that my siblings and I and friends of ours had written where she scolded us for not writing God’s name with a capital G. She asked “what’s wrong dear” I told her that I needed to pray, NOW!!! I screamed. I’m shaking; she said “here, let me pray with you and for you.” She continued “before we pray let me read a scripture.” I agreed, and she opened her bible and read this: 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity.[a] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29: 11-14.
I pass out. I mean I am out for the count. T.B.C.
The Minimalist Part Four
I’m walking on a floor, that is clear, I can see straight through it. Underneath my feet is the chaos that I barely escaped from at the foothills of the mountains. I feel as if I can reach right through this see through floor and pick a person up, no problem. I look at my hands and even they look see through. I turn around, slowly, and there it is again. This presence is right there again, still dressed like me! Oh no, Oh no, Oh no, Oh no, not again, this is happening again! “What is it? What do you want from me?” I asked the presence. It responds as its rocking back and forth with me, “What do you want from me?” I look puzzled. I ask “why did you bring me here” it responds, “why did you bring me here?” O.K., now not only am I frightened to the tenth power, but I am in a place that seems unreal, and everything feels like a breath of fresh air. “So you’re the Holy”--- the force moves briskly away from me as if to interrupt my thought process. I force myself to sit up and I ask “what’s going here?” It responds “look beneath you, you tell me what’s going on”. As I look below I see lots and lots of people on the ground bleeding. I see shattered glass, fire, and overturned vehicles of all kinds. I see people violently destroying property, worse acts of vandalism I’ve ever seen. Civil disorder is what I see.
The atmosphere changes, the force whispers “I am aware of the gap between my perfection and you all’s sinful ways” I never asked any one of you to try and fix it, I know that you can’t”. It whispers “what do I want from you? I want you to respond to Me in faith. Why did I bring you here? You brought me here first, you called me, remember? you said Oh My God, Holy Spirit help me. My people perish from a lack of knowledge. They don’t know how to run to the rock that is greater than they are. Even you as you lie here, you don’t fully understand how much I love you all, yet you all destroy each other; you fight off wisdom, knowledge understanding and love as if they were plagues, and for what? for temporal pleasures, and earthly goods. I give you all gifts and talents, but do you all use your God-given abilities to the fullest? You are a minimalist, you taught your family, yet you taught no one else how to live a minimal lifestyle. The very foundation of humanity is being threatened at this very minute; thus the darkness that is taking place in the sky, and it’s all because the gifts, spiritual and physical that were given, have been wasted and thrown away. Nobody cared to share so that all could prosper.
I stammer “I, I, I”
“I what?” the force asked?
I wake up. T.B.C.
No comments:
Post a Comment