Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: TEXTING (05/18/17)
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TITLE: Inadvertent Condolence Message | Previous Challenge Entry
By Robert Rutaagi
05/21/17 -
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One day, I received the following message on my phone:
"Dear uncle, this is to inform you that my grandmother has died. Burial arrangements are underway. We need your help. My siblings and I are totally helpless". Martin.
I was instantly devastated. I was already going through a devastating mature depression caused by work pressures I did not manage well. I was feeling quite low in every aspect of my life. For starters, depression is a terrible condition. I will return to that later.
Martin and his four siblings were orphans. Both parents had died when the children were young. Their father, Ignatius, was my o.b and longtime friend for whom I was best-man at his wedding to his wife, Patricia. Immediately, I texted the following message to Martin:
"I send you my heart-felt condolences upon the untimely death of your grandma. We mourn with you. May her soul rest in eternal peace".
After sending the message, a nagging premonition compelled me to check again. It had gone to Marion, not Martin.
I was devastated. “How was I going to sort out this mess"?
I tried to be calm but all in vain. I was at a loss.
"Dear Marion, please, ignore the condolence message wrongly sent to you", I wrote. She never responded.
The pain was excruciating. After a week, I received the following message from Marion’s father:
"My mother in-law has passed on, at our home. Please, inform all our friends." Jotham.
Marion’s grandma had died within a week after I had inadvertently sent her a condolence message meant for Martin.
No one will ever know the endless pain I went through that month. The devil exploited the situation to convict. Everywhere I turned, I saw pointing fingers and irked faces accusing me for causing death!
Back to depression - that dangerous condition. It disorients the chemistry and biology of its victims. And the devil uses it to liberally lie. That medical scientist who gave such a suitable name to the disease, must have been its patient who knew the right English word. Depression, literally, depresses every human fabric from cranium to toe.
In the state in which I was, no amount of persuasion could help me. All I could see and hear were accusing faces, pointing fingers and voices all accusing me for being a ‘prophet of doom’ masquerading as friend.
The same old serpent who deceived Eve, in Eden, saying: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” was at work. Gen. 3:1-24.
It is the same desperate specialist liar who, thrice, tempted Jesus. Matt. 4:1-11. He exploited my demented situation to persecute me using my depression and bereavement of my beloved friends.
By grace of God, perfected at Calvary, I woke up, on 27 May 2009, only to experience that I had been miraculously delivered from the damn depression. The joy of salvation and much more were fully restored – up to day. Glory be to God.
NON-FICTION
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