A Shoulder To Cry On!

By Dr jarlat Uche opara

She needed a shoulder to cry on.. Someone to confide in. An ear that would be patient to hear her confessions, her Odyssey, a life of mistakes and pretence, an unconscious and unscheduled adventure with immorality.

It ate her up daily, deep into her soul. The only image of her very clear even in her dream was an image of an empty soul, thriving in immoral life. ?”Can I have 5 hours of your time to unburden without being judged” ? She asked in an emotion ladened voice, sobbing inconsolably.

They didn’t believe her !Those she called brethren They all thought it was a prank, a joke, may be as usual. But deep down she was gone, struggling for her life right at the centre of a whirlwind, blown up and down without any grip on anything for hope and consolation.

It took her endless time persuading them to believe her story that it wasn’t a prank.

Their countenance changed, once they realized it wasn’t a prank , their eyes rolled in disbelief and their mouth practically opened in a surprised awe.

Though they said nothing but their facial expressions said it all. She got the message. walking away in pains and shock the only option she had.

It was a long walk to nowhere. The rain pattering, lightning the only thing that showed her light where to put her feet in that dark path.. Each thunder that struck sent shivers to her spine as she walked endlessly, thinking nothing but the vanity of this life and how to end it.

As she walked into that dark path, cold and shivering, she wished she could just jump into a lagoon and end it all.

What is the essence of life when those one trusted felt that one was a disappointment because of one mistake? Do I really blame them? Maybe I overrated myself before them. May be I carried myself before them like a white dove with no spot. I really don’t blame their shock and disappointment, she soliloquized.

But life happened and she suddenly became a victim of the slippery spots of life that she oftentimes condemned.

Walking that lonely path that night under the rain, with no destination in mind was the most bizarre and painful moment of her life. Lost in thought about how suddenly she became a stinking piece of shame, an object of disdain before her two friends she confided in.

She didn’t know there was a deep gully filled with water before her. Before she could realise it, she was already struggling against the pressure of the water surging with great intensity. As she struggled to remain afloat, her breathing was getting choked and the strength in her to continue to survive became weak.

As the torrent of the flood kept buffeting her up and down and the gasping of breath became very difficult, all she could muster the strength to say was “God have mercy! God have mercy”!! As the flood kept tossing her around, she could hear faint voices shouting and screaming, she is drowning! Help! She is drowning!!. At that point she lost consciousness and everything else that happened she never knew, only to found herself on the hospital bed the following morning.

How she was rescued from being drowned would be a story for another day.

A life at the verge of death because of a holier than thou attitude of some people. A soul seeking for consolation not judgement, mercy not moralisalization, reassurance that there is still hope not sermonization of how bad and ungodly her actions were would have died because of the purient disposition of those she called brethren.

We are all hurt, wounded by the arrows of sin, drenched by the guilt of offending God, adding salt to all these by our “elders’ disposition” to the woman caught in adultery would be the most uncharitable and hypocritical measure to anyone who comes to us seeking for counsel.

How many souls have your deputy God mien sent to self rejection and depression? How many have you condemned even before God condemns them? We are all walking on slippery spots as Christians, none wears a boot, too spiky to resist the slippery nature of sin, by grace we all stand.

Next time you see a man drenched in sin and stinks in immorality; speak kindly and reassuringly like Jesus; go! sin no more. We all carry our bags of sin around, only those theirs are punctured at public glare get shamed and condemned.

This is the story of a friend who was hurt after her sin was overly condemned by those who she felt should give her succor and hope in her dark moments of mistakes.

We are like lizard, laying prostrate on the floor, only God knows those with stomach aches. Let your holier than thou and deputy God mien not be arrows that wound the more souls beaten by sin but seek reassurance of God’s love from you.

Until you breath your last, never thump your chest that you have overcome the flesh. It can manifest in diverse ways. Only by grace can we boast in the righteousness of Christ.

Be that shoulder for people to cry on and get relief regardless of the depth of their prodigality. Never be those elders’ arrows pursuing that adulterous woman to kill her even while in their closets, they were more adulterous than her.

Jarlathuche@gmail.com