HAILSTORM

Hey friend, it’s been a while on here. A month tops. Sigh. Today I’d like to share a story with you. I first shared this piece on Gospelstories a Facebook page that hosts various gospel writers and provides beautiful godly content.
Photo credit: Gospelstories
 
*****
 
HAILSTORM
He walked down the alley in his hall of residence, it was tiled and lined on either side by rooms whose doors stood directly opposite each other.
He stopped at his room’s entrance, slot in the key and turned it in the clockwise direction twice. He pushed the door open and stepped in. The cool breeze that came from the spinning fan to his face once he got into the room, made him sigh in relief.
He was completely exhausted, he plunked his books on his bed and said a word of prayer, thanking God for all the lectures he had had that day. After praying, he eased himself into his reading chair and pulled off his shoes, his phone started chiming then.
It was Rukvwe, his sister. He picked up the call.
“Hey Rukie.”
“Jeremiah, you have to come home as soon as possible.”
He let out a mirthless laugh. “You do realize that my MB exams are coming up in two weeks, right?”
“Yeah, I know. But this is very important and urgent.”
“What is it?” He asked testily and added, “Whatever it is, I can’t leave school now.” before she could say anything.
“It’s not something we can discuss over the phone.”
“Shoot.”
The silence that followed was ominous. He wasn’t sure he was ready for what was coming. He braced himself.
“Dad and Mum are getting a divorce.”
His heart stopped. Her words were as good as a bullet fired straight to his heart. Hadn’t he asked her to shoot?
“Jerry? Are you there? Can you hear me?” He couldn’t say anything. The shock of the news left him breathless, wordless at that moment he was literally useless.
After calling his name a couple of times and getting no response, she ended the call. He let the phone slip from his hands and fall to the ground. He was still held in stunned silence. His breath became shallow, then it quickened. He wheezed. An attack was coming. Thankfully, his inhaler was just atop his reading table and so he didn’t have to grapple to reach it. With a dose of the Ventolin inhaler, he nipped the onslaught of Asthma in the bud.
He fell heavily on his bed, just like a crushing weight of disquiet fell on him, pressing him till suffocation and squeezing strength out of his very being. His throat was parched.
“It’s a lie. It’s not true. There is no way this can be true.” He said to himself, willing his mind to believe it was all just a prank or a huge joke or anything but reality. He picked his phone from the floor and dialled his Mum’s line.
“Mummy tell me it’s not true.” Her silence gave him her response before her words did.
“It is.” She waited for his reaction. Nothing. “I’m sor-”
“No!” He screamed so loudly that his Mum on the other end of the line, had to put the phone away from her ears.
“Mummy you can’t do this.” He was in tears.
“I’m afraid I don’t have a choice.”
“Mum this is going to affect us badly. Mille migwo.” He was actually down on his knees, trembling, teeth chattering and clutching the phone to his ears like a lifeline as he said those words from his heart.
“I can’t go back now, you wo-”
He bolted from his knees in swift outrage. “You are being selfish! All you’re doing is think about yourself. Have you thought about Rukey, about me? Have you thought about how this will affect us? For goodness sake I have an exam that could change the course of my life in just two weeks. Why do you want to destroy our lives this way?”
“You’re hurting me the more.” She said and from her tone he knew she too was crying.
“No less than you’re hurting me!” He flicked off tears from his eyes, growing angrier. “Do as you please. What you don’t know is that you and Dad aren’t just using a sledge hammer to crash your union, you’re crushing us as well. I ha-” He caught his words before they were completely out, but it did no good for she knew he was about to say he hated them.
He wailed till he was hoarse and there was left in him no strength. He heard approaching footsteps and quickly clambered up to his bed and pulled his blanket over his head. His roommates came into the room chatting.
“Jerry,” Mark tapped his feet, “guy wake up oh, it’s time for evening service.”
“I no dey go.” He rasped in reply.
“Why?”
He didn’t reply and when his roommates saw that he wouldn’t say a word to them, they left for church, leaving him behind with the thick darkness that seemed to envelop him and the weight that pressed him from all sides.
We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed. The loving whisper of the holy spirit’s voice sounded in his mind, calling to his memory a line from 2 Corinthians 4:8.
Ah Lord, I am. I’m crushed! He thought despondently, tears slipping into his pinna. His parents were like his backbone, he wondered what will become of him now that the ground on which he stood was pulling apart right beneath him.
You will fall, came the strong dark voice, You will sink right into abyss.
He shuddered.
The Lord has failed you! He struggled with the voice and the growing depression that gnawed at him, the listlessness that sprawled itself over him like a duvet.
****
Odogwu Chike was on the football field that evening, standing in the goal post. He watched Jude, a brunette striker from the opponent team, dribble his way from the other side of the field towards the mid-field, his intent was obvious; he wanted to score a goal. Chike gave his defenders instructions and clutched his knees with both glove clad hands, bracing himself and watching Jude with alert eyes. He had learned to focus on the ball and not the player’s legs, it was the little secret that made him a good goal keeper. Jude was approaching, confusing defenders with deft feet movements, as he urged the ball forward. He looked up at the goal post, his eyes met with Chike’s briefly. Chike was ready to dive in whatever direction Jude sent the ball flying.
Jerry was running, closely escaping the hailstones that pelted from the sky until a very large stone fell on his head, it exploded his skull, sent blood spurting in all directions and evoked a loud groan that was heavily laced with pain from the falling him.
The excited scream of “Goooaaaaal!” snapped him out of his grotesque reverie and he jolted to consciousness like the jinx of hypnosis just got broken on him.
“Next set!” Someone from the team that had just won the set elimination football match, hollered.
“Guy, which kain nonsense be that nah? You no even follow ball, you just stand dey look like ode!” Christopher, one of Chike’s teammate snapped at him, scowling murderously.
“Guys I’m sorry, na- I was- it is.” Chike stuttered incoherently as he still suffered discomfiture from the disturbing memory of his trance.
“You dey alright?” Nnaji was more concerned than angry at the loss.
“No- Yes- I don’t know,” He massaged his sweaty temples. “Honestly I don’t know. I’d be fine, I’m sorry but I have to go now.”
What was that bizarre trance about? He searched his spirit as he walked down the cobbled curb on his way to his hall of residence.
Pray for him.
He knew that it was urgent, he felt the urgency in his spirit and he started muttering intercessions for Jerry while he hurried to his room where he would be able to pray well.
****
Adegbite Oluyemisi gasped in horror. The scene that just flashed before her was really scary. She was in the bathroom and she’d bent to scoop a bowl of water from the bucket and right there in the water she’d seen the very gory sight of Jerry’s head bursting after being slammed by a heavy hailstone.
“Jesu! Ki leyi? (Jesus! What is this?)”
Pray for him.
“Oh, Lord I commit your son, Jeremiah Ediri into your hands, you alone know what is going on with him,” she started praying while her heart still pounded from the effect of the trance.
****
He was on his way out of his house when the images flashed before his eyes, stopping him dead in his tracks. He furrowed his brows as he wondered what it could mean. He was on his way to the church, and as the pastor he had to be there about half an hour before the commencement of the service to have a prayer meeting with the officiating ministers and if he didn’t leave his quarters immediately, he’d end up late.
Pray for him.
I’d do that when I get back from church.
Now!
He walked back inside and started praying in the spirit for Jeremiah Ediri.
****
He watched one program item segue into another. Praise and worship session, prayer, exhortation -the Pastor arrived late. He might well have stayed back in his dormitory. He had come here to escape depression, and probably to get answers from God. Neither wish was being fulfilled. The dark thoughts kept coming, weren’t they the reason why he left his room? And yet, there in the house of God thoughts sponsored straight from Hades plagued his spirit.
Initially he pressed away the thoughts, but when the unrelenting thoughts wouldn’t let up, he let up on trying to stop them. For he was weak and the thoughts were highly logical. He saw reasons to think of God as unfaithful, unjust, unworthy of his loyalty. The words ‘he has failed you!’ Kept ringing in his mind till he could hardly hear any other thing. The thoughts came with a compelling force, came in rapid succession and sucked him into depths of depression, hopelessness and bitterness against God.
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus,” The church chorused. Service was over and alas, instead of finding comfort in God’s presence, he would be leaving more bitter against him than he had come.
As he walked through the door of the church, he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned around. The pastor was smiling at him, he forced a smile and curtsied.
“Can you spare me a few minutes?”
“No problem sir.”
He took Jeremiah behind the lecture theatre that doubled as their worship centre.
“While I was praying for you this evening, the Holy Spirit ministered a passage to me, and I’d like you to read it.”
The simple words ‘while I was praying for you’ touched him deeply. Someone had been praying for him, someone loved him enough to spend time before God to receive a passage for him.
“Psalm 46, read the first three verses.”
He flipped through his bible till he got to the mentioned scripture.
“God is our refuge and strength,” he started, “A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed,” He stopped. His pulse jumped. That was exactly how he felt, his parents who were like the ground on which he stood were being removed from beneath him. There was a stirring in his chest.
“Go on,” The pastor urged him.
“And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling.” His voice quaked as tears ran down his cheeks. He pressed his fist against his chest and dropped the bible. In one breath he told the pastor everything.
“Why? Why? Why is this happening to me? Why now?” He asked looking at the older man with glassy eyes.
“Instead of asking why, why don’t you ask the Lord for grace? He said when we pass through the waters it will not overwhelm us and when we pass through the fire, it shall not burn us. He didn’t say if we pass through the waters, he said when we pass through the waters. This means that the storms of life will definitely beat against us, but he promised to keep us buoyant in the storm. The Lord is a very present help in this time of trouble. His grace is sufficient for you. The Lord is your strength and refuge my dear brother.” He reached out and squeezed his shoulders gently. Jeremiah wept.
“Read those words again, personalizing them this time. There is power in God’s word.” Jeremiah only wept. “Come on.”
He picked the bible with trembling hands. “God is my refuge-” sobs- “and strength, a very present help in this time of trouble.” sniffles, “Therefore I will not fear-” wipes tears- “even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling.”
“Yes, keep reminding yourself these words, keep pulling strength from the word of the Lord.”
The words he had heard in his spirit earlier tugged at his mind.
“I am hard pressed on every side but I’m not crushed.”
The pastor nodded. “Let’s pray together.” He held out his hands for him to hold.
****
The power of the brethren is very important. United we stand. And as a believer if the Lord is impressing someone on your heart please pray for them, you might never know how much that prayer would do. Don’t dodge the nudge of the Holy Spirit to intercede for a brother or sister. The bible says we should bear one another’s burdens.
Psalm 133: 1 how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
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I hope you enjoyed and were blessed by what you just read?
Perhaps you’ve heard of the world sexual purity day #WSPD which comes up tomorrow the 14th of November, 2017, now in that regard I’d be sharing a story tomorrow by God’s grace. Same blog, probably same time, don’t miss it.
I love you. Smiles