A Peek Into the Future | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: A Peek Into the Future | Previous Challenge Entry
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09/04/23
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I made up my mind to venture outside, away from the stale air of our boarded up house. The world is a scary place now, with unchecked crime and bands of gangs roaming through the streets. This is not the America I grew up in, and no one saw it coming. The only ones who warned us this was a possibility and that ideas have consequences were those crazy Christians. Everyone thought the Christians were the cause of all society’s problems, pushing rules on people’s behaviors and actions. Everyone accused them of being hateful, and, as a result, Christianity was seen as oppressive and rigid. As such, Christianity needed to be controlled, silenced, and ultimately, eliminated. If not eliminated, then a new form of Christianity, fitting the modern way of thinking, needed to be created. This didn’t last long, however, as people were forced to pick sides. Christians were hunted down and churches burned.

The police became ineffective as well. The police were targeted for racism, homophobia, or some other hate crime every time an arrest was made. The police force was ultimately abolished as people decided it was best to live whatever way they wanted. “Live your truth” and “do as thou wilt” became the guiding mantras, and anyone trying to impose their morality onto someone else was silenced. The result was not a loving utopia as we all thought it would be. It was chaos and anarchy.

The sun burned my eyes as I walked down the sidewalk. For safety reasons, we hunkered down for some time in our house in the dark, waiting for the rioting to stop. Trash, broken glass, and refuse littered the streets, and no businesses remained open. I passed a stray dog, scavenging through some rotten smelling trash. As I reached an intersection, I looked one way and saw military officers at the end of the road. The government instituted a state of martial law to gain control over the deteriorating situation. Not wanting a confrontation, I calmly and quietly turned the other way, taking the other path.

I came up to an old church that had been abandoned and partially burned long ago. Part of the building still standing had broken windows and overgrown grass blocking the entrance to the deteriorating door, which had peeling paint and rotting wood. This used to be the place that broken people would go to take refuge. It used to be a place where people sought healing and truth. Truth. That word has become such a confusing word. That one word means something different to every single person. As a society, we generally decided that every person’s truth, although different, has merit. As a result, people began to weaponize and enforce their truth onto others so that truth has ultimately become meaningless. Perhaps there is no truth, or maybe it cannot be known. A faint recollection from childhood crept into my mind. “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Where did that come from? I walked toward the church, through the prickly grass and saw something black ahead of me. Clearing a path, I walked toward the object, finding an old, tattered, leather bound book. It was a Bible that had not been found and burned. I flipped through the crinkly pages that had been somewhat damaged by water and pollution. I stopped at John 14: 6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” “Hmm,” I wonder, “is truth found in a person?” I flipped through some more pages, landing on 1 Corinthians 1:18-19, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate’.” Flipping back to John, I found in chapter 8 verse 32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Suddenly, the depressingly familiar sound of a gunshot rang out in the distance, shocking me back into the reality of the present moment. Determined to read this book cover to cover, I slipped it under my jacket, and headed back home, away from the altercation. Maybe truth can be known, after all.

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