Twenty-Four
____________
Temporary Importance
Samson, Jenny stared at the garden’s statue in awe. What a brute, what a man. Jenny
read the plaque next to the statue several times, ‘Judges 16:26 &
Hebrews 11:32,’ I’ll need
to read that part of the Bible again… she continued
reading, ‘Lead me to the pillars that support the abuses, addictions,
loneliness, emptiness, and the fears that troubled youth face and struggle
with, that I may feel them with my hands and lean against them.’ The
word ‘FAITH’ was engraved in large capital letters at the base of the
statue.
The blinded Samson pushed with
all his strength and determination against those pillars, this provoked numerous thoughts for Jenny to
ponder. Jenny was familiar with the biblical passages relating to Samson.
Cyrene Youth Ministries used these for a series during her incarceration
at Y-MAX for teen women. She had learned about the life and the failings
of Samson and how his great faith in God and God’s promises outweighed Samson’s
failings. Though Samson had fallen many times, he always rose quickly to
the call of God and believed God’s words. As corrupt as Samson appears
to our modern eyes, Jenny reflected, his
faith made him appear victorious in God’s eyes. I guess there’s hope
for me.
El Pino and Nash approached
Jenny and stood staring at the statue.
“Bad dude,” commented Nash.
“I wish I was that strong,” El
Pino added.
Jenny simply said, “It’s a
spiritual lesson.”
“What?” the boys responded.
“Read those Bible verses there,”
Jenny pointed to the plaque, “then get back to me.”
“Yeah, right,” replied Nash.
“Hey, come with me and El Pino to town.”
“Why?”
“We gotta dig up some quick
cash.”
“Sounds like trouble, boys.”
“Only if we get caught,” El Pino
laughed.
Jenny looked at the two and
stated, “It’s my first day here, so I’ll pass on that one.”
“Suit yourself,” Nash replied.
“Gross,” El Pino spited and
shouted, “A hamburger with wings. I got a fly in my mouth.”
“Let’s go, El Pino, you can eat
later,” laughed Nash.
With the two boys off on some
type of troubling errand, Jenny returned to her room. She wondered about Amir
and why he had not joined El Pino and Nash in their endeavor, but it
really was not any of her business she decided.
Jenny retrieved her diary from
her closet to add some thoughts. She knew that analytical thoughts can be lost
from memory swiftly, far more swiftly than negative ones are for some
reason. She wrote… ‘All of my life I have wanted someone to care about me, to
love me for me. I know that people can only care for others for a brief
time during their life – they can’t care forever. If I died, someone might care
for a while, some may even cry for a while, but that would fade away
faster than my life did. Someone may cry and feel emotion on occasion when
they thought of me, but not many. What is Life? Why is life? Who am I? Can
I have the faith to live for God? What is the difference between
being important now and for eternity? Is there any difference? God, give
me some type of communication channel through to you like Christ had.’ Jenny
closed her diary and cried for the first time since that horrible night her
uncle had entered her bedroom as a young girl, only exiting after changing
her life forever.
Hours later Jenny’s bedroom door
creaked open slowly, “Hey, what you doin’ sittin’ here in the dark on your bed
at 2 a.m.?” questioned the voice.
“Who is it?” Jenny whispered.
“El Pino,” he replied, “and Nash
is with me. You sittin’ in the dark?”
“Yeah,” Jenny replied, “I don’t
get to sleep so much a lot of nights. I just sort of nap and dream a little now
and then.”
Jenny experienced many sleepless
nights. Her mind tortured itself with thoughts from her childhood and recent
teenage life.
“We’re headin’ out,” the voice
whispered in the dark. “We scored some special stuff with the cash we appropriated
today,” The two boys chuckled. “Want to join us?”
The boys had robbed a small
convenience store and an elderly man in the bathroom of a shopping mall before
purchasing some illicit items to smoke.
“I better not. Don’t want to get
busted on my first night here.”
“Ok, bye.” Jenny’s bedroom door
closed silently.
Jenny pondered, Amir isn’t with them… interesting.
Jenny set her diary back down in
her closet’s corner, locked her door and laid down on her bed to continue her
contemplations. She wondered why some people conquer life while others get
conquered; why some people suffer horrible things and others go through life
unscathed; why her own life had to be the way it was.
Jenny wanted to get out the
Bible she had received in prison from the Cyrene Ministry folks, but just could
not do it. I don’t feel worthy
to read the Bible right now. The Bible story of the immoral woman
with the alabaster vial of perfume repeated itself in her mind though, over and
over. That woman cried
and washed Jesus's feet with her tears and hair. I would do that.
Footsteps softly sounded in the
hallway outside of Jenny’s door. A soft knock resulted in a reply from
Jenny, “Who’s there?”
“I’m Sharon McKenzie,” replied a
woman, “I’m working here tonight. Sorry to bother you, but two of the boys seem
to be missing.”
Jenny rose, flicked on her light
and opened her door.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,”
Sharon apologized.
“It’s ok, I wasn’t really
sleeping so well, you know first night and all. No boys in here thank
goodness.”
After glancing briefly around
the room Miss McKenzie said, “Goodnight Jenny. Jenny is correct, isn’t it?”
“Yes, that’s me. Nothin’ I can
do about that.”
Miss McKenzie did not know how
to reply to Jenny’s response, so she simply closed the door to continue her hunt
for the two missing youths.
Jenny mumbled to herself, “At
least I didn’t have to snitch or lie.”
Continuing her reflective
thought upon her bed Jenny eventually fell asleep, but morning arrived all too
quickly. She went down to the bathroom, showered, returned to her room,
and readied herself for the day ahead. She was not sure what the future hours
would involve for her, but figured that they would be something boringly
therapeutic.
The woman who picked Jenny up
and brought her to FHG the previous day, Cynthia Lafferty, knocked on Jenny’s
bedroom door announcing that breakfast was ready.
“Yeah, on my way,” Jenny
responded.
Stepping down the stairway,
Jenny glanced around again to inhale the beauty of the historic home’s
craftsmanship. She never really noticed things like this in her past, but
she had never actually experienced anything like this before either.
“Smells like bacon!” she mumbled.
Next Chapter: Breakfast is Served
No comments:
Post a Comment