Blinded By Life

Gary is a good guy. He has never consumed alcohol, drugs, or cheated on his wife. In fact, he tries not to even look at another woman in a lustful way. He was an honor roll student and meet the love of his life in high school.  They have been happily married for 15 years.  He goes to church, volunteers, and gives to the needy. To him and others, he is a good person.

He can remember the day his life changed. It was an unsuspected phone call.  The phone rang at 2 am in the morning.  It was odd for the phone to ring at that time of the morning. He reached over, got his phone, and answered.  It was a strange voice on the other end. It was the police,  he listened as the person on the other end told him that his mother called an ambulance with chest pain. However, when the ambulance arrived she was laying on the ground unresponsive.  She was holding her phone in her hand and it appeared she was getting ready to call Gary.

The EMT's tried to revive her unsuccessfully.

Gary dropped the phone.

He screamed in pain.

A week later he sat at his mother's funeral saying goodbye to his hero, to the person whom he knew loved him unconditionally and had his back through thick and thin.

Through the next 3 years, Gary sank into a deep depression.  He tried to keep going and hide the pain. He thought he was doing good. He thought nobody knew his pain. He thought he couldn't talk to anyone because they would say he was weak, and he should get over it. 

He lost his job because he couldn't concentrate.  He started to have low performance, memory, and attendance problems, so they fired him.

He started to question why all this happened to him when he was a good person.

He thought it couldn't get any worse, his heart was already broken. That is until his wife walk in one day and told him, she was leaving, she wanted a divorce.

Gary sank into a deep dark place, he sank into metaphoric blindness by the mud of life that covered his eyes. The pain was heavy, he felt he couldn't move forward.  He would try to pull himself out of the darkness, but he couldn't.  He didn't care anymore, he secretly wished he was dead.  He blamed himself for his mother's death and the loss of his wife. 

He tried to numb the pain, so he started sleeping with a different woman and drinking alcohol. He thought it would help, he thought it would take the pain away.

It didn't work, it made it worse.

He stopped caring about the things that he loves, all he would do is lay in bed and sleep.

He blamed God,  he would cry out to him saying I was a good person. You took it all and let this happen.

Then in the middle of the night, he was woken by a sudden gasp and warm feeling light.  He was showered with a soothing presence. He sat at the edge of his bed wondering what it was.  The warmth continued to shower him. He could feel all the pain,  discouragement, and heartbreak fade away. 

He knew what it was, he cried as the mud of life that was blinding him was removed.  He woke up the next morning feeling determined to move forward and begin the healing process. 

That day he reached out for help and called a therapist. 

1 year later, Gary stands in front of his bathroom mirror staring at himself smiling.

" I love you."

This story is inspired by the following :

John: 1-6

 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.