Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024
This is an excerpt from my new book – FINDING THE SAFEST PLACE ON EARTH.
The First Lesson
After ten minutes of listening to the sound of silence, Jack heard footsteps entering the chapel. The footsteps stopped, and he felt the presence of someone standing next to his pew.
Jack dropped to his knees as a signal for the stranger not to disturb him. That didn’t work.
A cheerful voice said, “Hello Jack.”
Jack looked up and saw someone who triggered no prior memory of existence. He observed the physical dimensions of the man as if he’d be filling out a report later for the civil police.
The intruder was about six feet tall and had a sturdy athletic build with broad chest. His hands were large and strong, like those of a football player. He had an oval face, a long straight nose with narrow bridge, light olive skin, and dark brown eyes set deep between a prominent forehead and high cheekbones. His curly, dark brown hair was medium cut, accompanied by a short well-tailored beard. He wore a light-blue windbreaker and dark navy pants.
Jack was shorter by two inches and less defined in the body, like someone who’d maybe played sports in the past but spent too much time in bars of late. His face was somewhat square with a fleshy nose on the short side parked in the middle. His eyes were green and his hair was black, cut short, with no facial hair.
Jack pushed himself to the back of his own bench. The stranger sat down in the next pew forward, turned around, and looked at him with eyes that penetrated like lasers into the depths of his soul.
“I don’t know you,” Jack said, “but you seem to know me. Who are you?”
“Manny,” he answered, “and I do know you, but, as you say, you don’t know me.”
Jack’s face wore a look of perplexity. “How do you know me?”
Manny smiled. “That’s not important right now. What’s important is that you have a troubled soul and came into this church to find answers to your perceived problems.”
And so starts the relationship of Manny and Jack, with Manny being a mentor to Jack. Do you have someone in your life you can go to for guidance and encouragement? Do you have someone to help you with your troubling issues and unpleasant circumstances?