Monday, June 2, 2008

0029.

A story.


Shouts of diluted "praise" filled the room while a man in a tailored suit shone his pearly whites at the crowd, spurring them on with "Amen! Yes! Amen!" He didn't hear that. As soon as he creaked open the door in the back of the daunting room, he was overwhelmed by the hundreds of desperate souls attempting to scrape up and store a little "joy" out of these 56 minutes to last them the rest of the week. His ears shut it all out. The silence in his head was almost deafening as he slowly walked down the aisle. No one broke from their yelps of "Amen" (to every empty promise the well-dressed smile turned out) to look at his clearly troubled face as he trudged by them. His heart gradually started to beat faster. The smiles on the faces of the middle-aged attendees seemed to mock his twenty-something soul. His trudge suddenly turned into a purposeful march of sorts. He was approaching the 4 steps leading up to the blue carpeted stage upon which the shiny man was proclaiming.
"You can do anything with this Book! God does not want you to suffer! Read this Book; you will succeed!"

His wobbling legs began ascending the steps. One. Two. Three. Four.

"You can live a successful li--" The shiny man stopped.

He looked at Shiny Man with a piercing stare. He turned to the crowd and cried out,
"THIS is not real!!
PAIN is real!!
My pain is real!
Where is God in PAIN?"

He collapsed to the blue carpet in sobs.
Shiny Man's polished face faded into a shade of red.
The yelps of "Amen!" were nowhere to be found.