Forget me Not

I forgot to pray this morning. That’s not really true, I didn’t feel like praying this morning so I just got up, took a shower, said goodbye to the wife and kids and left for work. I like playing music when I drive. And I was feeling quite good this morning so I had the radio on quite loud. I was driving okay, till I noticed the right-end rear of my car tilt significantly down and the car vibrating and misaligned. I wondered what that was about, probably a flat tyre, then I saw my back tyre overtake me by the right and speed ahead of me. That’s when I hit the brakes.

I got out of my car slightly shaken, and of course I checked if the tyre really was mine. It was. I thanked God for small mercies, called my mechanic to take over the car and rushed to work. I got there just in time for the Management meeting. It went okay, I presented my report flawlessly then just sat there getting bored till everyone else finished presenting, discussing and showing off.

After the meeting the boss called me to her office. I figured she had an assignment for me, turns out she had other ideas. Apparently some “well-wisher” had told her I had been saying she was always angry because she was sex starved and someone should just do the office a favour and shag her. I told her it wasn’t true but she didn’t care. She told me she was firing me with immediate effect and I should get out of her office. I reminded her that my contract still had some 9 months before it expired and she told me she did not “give a #*%$#@! “ and I should get out. She would go to court if she had to, she said. Avoiding further conflict I got out of her office, collected the few of the things that belonged to me and left the building.

So there I was feeling sorry for myself, walking around town aimlessly. Actually I was contemplating how I would explain to my wife that I had been fired and that we would not be able to pay half the bills this month as well as for the foreseeable future. Then my phone rung, it was a ground line, a strange number. I prayed that it was someone calling me to a job interview. But of course it was not. It was some guy from my children’s school informing me that my 6-year old son had fallen off a bicycle during break and had broken something. They were not sure what but they suspected it was a collarbone. I started running as fast as I could with all that I had carried and tried to find the first minibus available so I could make my way to the hospital.

I did not get there as quick as I wanted but I got there eventually. The suspicions had been correct, the little monkey had broken a collarbone and had been admitted for the time being. He had come to hospital with a teacher and my 13-year old daughter who had been at school with him. I asked her where her mother was. I’m not quite sure what she said, she was babbling so many things I could not quite make sense of. I wonder what they are teaching kids in school these days, don’t they teach them how to speak proper anymore? I think though she said something about teachers not being able to reach her mother.

I tried calling my wife but her phone was off. It seemed like we would be spending the night at the hospital so I left the invalid with his elder sister and went to get a few things from home for the night. I had never come home from work at 3pm before. It seemed so strange being there that time, so quiet. Didn’t expect my wife to be home, she was usually out this time of the day selling female clothes and accessories from the back of her car. She had customers scattered here and there in the city.

Yet there she was staring out the bedroom window dressed in the bikini that I love so much. I thought for a second how such a perfect picture she made and how beautiful she looked. It seems she did not hear me come in, the radio I use to put me to sleep was playing some slow music. I figured I would surprise her and give her a hug from behind so I tiptoed in. Then I stopped halfway into the room. There was a naked man on our bed, and his clothes were neatly laid out on the floor beside the bed.

Its funny how fear and shock can be experienced the same way. Its funny how for both you can feel the blood rush from every part of you to your heart just so it can make the heart pump, pump,pump. You can almost hear the heartbeat in your ear, it makes a rapid sound that goes tick-tock! Tick-tock! Like a watch, only faster. What do you do in such a situation? I figured it might be a great idea to strangle her and set the bed on fire on that idiot that was still asleep on it. Then she turned from looking out the window and noticed me for the first time. Her mouth went wide open, her left hand clutched her cleavage atop her bra and her right hand clutched her navel as if she was feeling naked and was trying to hide the goods.

At the moment she looked at me I just felt deflated. All the air and energy just went out of me like a balloon with a puncture. This is what a marriage of 21 years had come to, huh?! With my voice shaking I told her her son was in hospital, got what I needed from the house and left. But only after I had taken a good look at the man on my bed who had stared at me with a half sleepy-half dazed expression on his face when my voice had startled him awake.

I tried to forget what I had seen as I made my way to the hospital. It wasn’t working, so I let it be and kept going. My mechanic called and I told him to meet me at the hospital with the car. I got to the hospital and checked on the kids. They were both asleep, one on the bed, the other on the chair. I let them be and sat on the vacant chair. I tried to process all that happened to me today as I looked around the room. My eyes settled on a framed picture of a little girl praying. The words on it said simply “Pray without Ceasing!”

Just reading those words caused a flood of emotions to arise within me. I couldn’t take it anymore so I just broke down and got on my knees with my head on the chair seat and I pointed a spiritual finger at God and asked Him how he could let all these things happen to me.

I don’t know about you but I think that God is partially crazy. He does things I don’t understand, in ways I don’t understand. In this case I heard him answer me deep within my soul. “It’s all your fault,” he said. “You are the one who went out your home without me,” he said.

“It is written, ‘Ask and it shall be given to you’”, he said. “Today the heavens decided that we would give you life but would do nothing else for you unless you asked us for it. When you failed to pray that we should watch over you and protect you from misfortune you put at risk your life on the road. When you failed to ask that we should provide for you and your daily bread you put at risk your source of income. When you failed to pray that we should care for and protect your family you put at risk your little boy and even your marriage, for the man in your bed she just met earlier today. When you failed to pray for your spiritual life you put at risk your faith, for all that happened to you today could stop any man from believing that God exists!”

God can be such a pain in the “nether lands” when he speaks the truth to you. I admitted my mistakes and gave thanks that nothing more had happened to me, for surely it could have been worse, look at what happened to Job when God decided to act funny. I took out my phone and reset my ringtone to an old praise classic. It begins like “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you, Alleluyaaaah alleluuuuuuyah.”

The moral of the story: “PRAY WITHOUT CEASING!”. Pray for anything, anyhow, any way. Pray for the weirdest things, the stupidest of things going on with you, as well as the most dear and important to you. Left, right, and center pray. Pray when you wake, as you eat, or as you walk-whatever suits you. Pray when it hurts, when you don’t feel like it or are neck-deep in sin. You never know what you are risking if you don’t, prayer keeps you close to God and God close to you. And that’s all you need to get through anything good or bad.

BTW: This is purely a work of fiction. But you get the moral. If you don’t then you are in trouble, kneel down and pray.