The Great Depression of 2010 found me curled in a ball on my bed. Tear stained. Empty. Drugged. Dark. Pained.
For months I lived as if in a daze. Sleeping on my feet. Talking. Eating. Driving. Numb. I remember very little.
A series of events led to my downfall. I thought I might never recover. Demons swirled about my head. Devils whispered in my ear. I believed them.
Sleep. They said. Life is pain. Sleep.
And so I did.
My children suffered.
I would not awake.
One day in church I heard someone reading a familiar scripture story.
Jonah was sleeping at the bottom of a ship.
A terrible storm raged about him. His shipmates were terrified for their lives. Yet he slept.
At long last the ship master went to Jonah.
"What meanest Thou, oh Sleeper? Arise and call upon your God."
These words penetrated my soul and filled me with Light. I had been starving for Light. I devoured it whole.
I was Jonah in the belly of a whale. Peering through the slime and bile. Recieving limited Light through the blow hole of the beast.
Hopeless. Heavy.
I decided I would try to awake. I would forget the pain of the past. I would pray for assistance in my righteous endeavor and emerge triumphant.
I clawed my way out of the great fish with his massive teeth and jaws.
The light that met me was beautiful. Brilliant. Illuminating. Healing.
What meanest Thou, Oh Sleeper? Arise and call upon your God.
PS I wrote a silly "J" entitled "Just spit it Out". Ugh. Not my best work. Read it at your own risk. But then couldn't sleep until I cranked out "Jonah". Happy J Day. :)
