Thursday, October 30, 2008

Eternity Houses and Text Messages

Our church took 35 people to Conway last night to tour the "Eternity House". Our reservations were for 8:30 PM which would have put us home about 10:00. Unfortunately, the tour was running late, and we arrived home at 11:30 pm.
Late hours for a school night.
Parents were not happy I'm sure.

I've been to these Heaven/Hell houses where the tourists entered directly into Hellish scenes and then toured Heaven and Heavenly scenes. But this one was slightly different.
This tour took us physically from one room to another, each time building the characters and their relationships with one another. Some of the actors, of course, were portraying Christians, some were not. Some were searching for meaning in their lives,..some were hardened.

The disturbing scene for Ralph, Abby and I was when they drew us into a huge car wreck scene. We entered into a room, complete with crashed and upside down cars, police lights and sirens, bodies on the pavement covered with white sheets and screaming (I mean screaming) survivors and family members.

In my life:
I try to be (and appear) well-adjusted.
I try to be in control.
I try to not dwell on details that torment.
I laugh, therefore it's easy for people assume the pain is gone. The truth would strike them dumb.
I ask God nearly every day to keep my mind safe from thoughts that easily get out of control.
But scenes like the one we walked into at the Eternity House can easily and rapidly bring me to my emotional limits.
Blessedly,..recovery comes quicker these days than they used to.

The results of the tour was that we all were reminded of the single most important question of our entire lives:
"Where will I spend Eternity?"

On the ride back home, I received a text message from one of my older kids in the group. It said simply,..."I am thinking I've lost my way. I need you to help me find my way back to God".

I've never considered doing an entire counseling session via text message, but I'm telling ya,..it works! My little ol fingers kept my telephone keypad lit up with responses for his thoughts and searching questions. However,...I'm not a good "text-er". Really S L O W.
Poor guy. He was a patient reader.

Thoughtful night.
Late night.
Painful night.
Technological nightmare (for me!)
Redemptive night.
Good night.

1 comment:

Candace Kay said...

You are loved, dear friend. I love the way you love even in the midst of your pain.

CKay