New Believers Of God

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

That night, we met up in the warehouse again for another lecture from Marlon. This was in many ways the finale to Laurelville, as the next morning we would be leaving right after breakfast.

"So," he began "You've had a lot of time to think since arriving. I sure hope you used it wisely."

I figured he was going to say that.

"Now that we've got ourselves a couple of minutes, I'd like for us to use this opportunity to reflect on what I said before. Don't worry, I'm not going to call any of you up here."

I'm sure we all knew why that was.

"Instead, what I want you to do is pray. Go outside amongst yourselves and reach out to God in silence. Tell him exactly how it is you feel about him, and what this weekend has done to possibly change that. Don't just talk to him, open up to him. Be thorough with what you say and what's really on your mind, because that's what he wants to hear.

From my perspective, he was asking me to do something I hadn't done before. Whenever I prayed at church or Hangin' In, it was always with other people present. But now I was being told to do it all alone. I didn't know what to make of that.

"When the bell rings, come back inside. You're now dismissed."

From there, me and the guys headed outside, and each went off on our own. After looking around a bit, I sat down on a large rock next to the mini golf course.

I briefly looked up to the black sky, filled with a million stars alongside the bright moon, before closing my eyes and putting my hands together.

"Dear God," I thought "I know you've been watching over me. I've known that for most of my life, and lately I've been thinking a lot about it."

So much was on my mind at once. I didn't know where to start.

"There's so many things I've been taught about you, things that I had such a hard time believing because they just seemed too unreal to me. All the miracles you brought into this world, the heroes and saviors I've read about in the bible, I didn't understand. I had so many questions about them, questions nobody knows the answers to for sure. Until this year, I only believed in you because I was told to. By my parents, my church, and my CCD class. None of that meant anything to me, it was just something I lived with. But over the last few months, that's started to change. I've begun to see the true meaning behind your teachings. I've begun to understand what makes them so amazing. Most importantly though, I've learned that not everything needs an explanation. We don't need to know exactly what happened because that's not the point of this. Believing that it happened is the whole reason we're here. Sometimes, it's best that we don't know."

I meant every word of that statement sincerely.

"This weekend has only helped me realize that more. Like when I told Victor about Jesus' ministry, or when I told Daryl to trust your protection. I wanted them to realize it too, and I hope someday they will."

Staying on that topic, I also began to wonder what the others were thinking about. Part of me wondered if they were even taking this seriously, or if they were just waiting for it to be over. I could certainly see some of them doing that. Sitting somewhere without a care.

"That's what I'll remember about this experience. Not the games, or the skits, or the songs, but because for the first time in my life I believed in you on my own."

I couldn't stop. I wanted him to hear every last thing I had to say.

"I promise you I'll keep that up from now on. I'll go to church every Sunday and enjoy it, I'll go to CCD and look forward to what we're being taught, I'll go to Hangin' In and appreciate the lectures just as much as everything else, and I won't let you down. I'll be a good Catholic, and an even better Christian."

"BONG!"

That was the bell, signaling us to wrap it up.

"Amen." I concluded.