Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: WILD (11/16/17)
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TITLE: And Jesus Wept | Previous Challenge Entry
By Wilma Schlegel
11/23/17 -
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I’ve done this before, but tonight my senses are raw from stress. If ever there was a time to concentrate, it is certainly now. ‘Dangerous’ doesn’t even begin to describe the wild mentality of a stampede whether wildebeest, elephant or something else entirely. Focus, I tell myself. Keep your presence of mind. My life and others’ depend upon it.
I keep moving forward, it’s all I can do. I can feel the rumbling now as well as see them in the distance. I think about how it’s going to feel, squeezed between them. I know what a catastrophe this could be and what a waste.
I think of your word where it tells me:
“You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.” (Hebrews 2: 7-9 NIV)
So why don’t we behave more carefully, realizing our value?
Meanwhile, the frenzy draws closer. All my impulses tell me to keep ahead of it.
Faster, still faster.
It’s a mob.
Evidence of previous stampedes litter the ground ahead of and around me. The raw, red meat and the drying, disfigured hulks of once living bodies, these are the remains of casualties and it isn’t even a war.
It’s uncontrolled, callous destruction that goes on any day and any night.
What has touched off this population to cause them to stampede? Is it fear? Is it power?
Unthinking, the group rushes full-speed, ever forward. They seem to have an unspoken mantra -
Keep ahead.
Keep moving.
Got to get there; away from here.
And when we get to the sacred ‘there’, if we get there, will our fear be quelled? Will our need for power be satiated?
***
They’re upon me now. It’s a large group. I must concentrate. I tell myself to let them pass. I will be alright.
I can see the glare, feel the impatience, maybe even anger when they’ve closed in behind me.
I must move faster.
And still faster.
And faster.
I’m caught up in the rush as the pack moves me forward.
And then I see it. Something has fallen in my path. I can’t stop or those behind me will crush me. I try to veer to the side, but it’s not enough. My bumper makes impact. My tires too. I’m thrown off course, out of control.
Something else is coming at me fast. The guardrail?
I hear the crash before I feel it. It’s the last sound ever I hear.
And still they come behind and around me. They’re more impatient now because I’ll hold them up.
But they’re also intrigued to have something to gawk at.
Me. What I was and all that I will never be.
Why did I speed up? I had stopped thinking about how valuable I am to you,Lord. I just wanted to be fast and powerful, like the rest of the group.
Such a senseless waste.
And Jesus wept.
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