Redeemed

REDEEMED

The Gathering 

The man standing before them was almost what you'd call beautiful, with a soldier's build. He was one of those preachers of the Word who were as beautiful as the messages they preached. He was as elegant as a gazelle. His ministry has converted thousands of souls and is still converting more by the day. 

The slim man had lived a terrible life, but that was a long time ago. He now bears the smile of one who has been marked for the kingdom.

The gathering was scheduled late in the afternoon when the sun was beginning to lose its heat and people could bear walking the distance to the Great Hall as it was called. The hall was made of red bricks and a high ceiling.

He got up to speak in the half-filled hall. He bid his time as he turned his head around until he had covered the entire room.

His heart surged and performed a back-flip when he saw the raw, hungry look on the faces of the young people who occupied the strong brown wooden pews.

His lips began to curve slowly until they became wide enough to accommodate the joy that was rising in his heart.

It had taken him three months to put together this gathering, but it was worth the wait. He had a message he wanted to share with these young ones, and he would hope that they never give up, but to keep hoping that their stories would one day change- just like his own did.

There was no easy way to begin and he knew it. He had no idea how he was going to tell these people how he got here. It was not a secret, but very few people knew about it.

At first, he was frightened by the outcome if he let people know who he was. It would cost him his head if word got out, but he couldn’t keep it to himself. It was like a transformation he could not resist. He was prompted daily to share his message despite the cost.

The man with the lean frame and well-kept mustache standing before the curious audience cleared his throat for the twentieth time. 

His audience was getting agitated. The people had begun to murmur and whisper amongst themselves. They had no idea why they were there. It wasn’t his usual sermon. They were there because of how his teachings have helped many of them.

“Thank you for coming,” a heavy voice boomed. The voice was almost three times the size of the man. “Many of you know me as a great minister, and I am proud of that. But how many of you truly know me? Who I was? My journey here?” he looked up to see the confused faces staring keenly at him. The people were swallowing every word he was saying. Of course, he was a great teacher. But really, who was he?

The audience had no idea what was about to hit them. The ratio of the man’s voice to his statue was the first attention grabber. Some had to turn back in search of the source of the voice. Even if you had been attending his teachings and have seen him for a while, you never get used to such improper rationing.

The preacher began to give an account of his past life.

“Look at me,” he began, “there was a time not so long ago when we wouldn’t share the same room with any of you.”

He told them a story of what happened when he was only a teenager.

They were rounded up by their leader and he was given the greatest task that could be bestowed upon any man by his religion, more so a man of his youthful age.

It was a sunny afternoon and the winds were blowing from every direction. Four boys and six men were made to sit on the bare ground while they went through the ‘selection processes.’

The leader was ruthless. The process, brutal. One by one, the rest were eliminated and he was the only one left.

By now, even the few people who had earlier threatened to leave were sitting with their knuckles white with gripping the edges of their seats. 

He was cheered and was lifted on the shoulders of the bigger ones. The defeated nine could only look at him and wish they were in his shoes, but he outsmarted and outperformed all of them during the training.

They felt jealous, just like any normal human being would, and they would jeer and smirk and draw their mouths and lift their noses. But he had already been chosen and there was nothing they could do about it.

He had a personal audience with the leader and was educated and instructed on the tasks he will be carrying out.

The first task

After getting his orders from the leader and being trained, he was pumped, charged, and ready to discharge his duties. Everyone envied him. 

Riding on his way, he kept on lifting both hands and saying silent meditations so his mission would be successful.

He was going to destroy a gathering not much different than the one he was now conveying. 

He stormed the place with a large sword and a small pocket knife. His orders were to kill everyone. He was a soldier. A mercenary. There was no questioning orders, and he did exactly as he was told.

When he finished, he saw all the blood he had spilled and he threw up right inside the hall which he had committed the heinous act. His guts were curled up on each other and his bile kept rising to his throat.

When he returned that evening, he feasted with all the high-ranking officials. It was a meal he had never partaken, but now he was part of them. They had found their perfect soldier.

The leader had little doubts, but he would not share with his subordinates in order not to be perceived as weak, and when one of the other officials expressed his doubt, the leader shrugged and waved him off, dismissing his fears and acclaiming his support to their new mercenary.

Subsequent tasks

By the eighth task, the mercenary had all but forgotten about the mess his killings were producing. It was now beautiful chaos to him. He had lost count of how many people he had killed during such gatherings, always with the same order- take all you can, give nothing back.

Once, someone asked if he got a tattoo on his back. Lines ran across and beyond the full stretch of his back. He almost killed the other one for asking. He wasn’t even supposed to see him bare-backed. 

One thing that kept him blood-thirsty besides his orders was the resistance being offered by the gatherings he was destroying. The more they resisted, the more his passion and rage grew. Not one person had gone without trying to put up a fight, and it excited him.

The last straw

One day he was on his way to a mission and he felt a nudge within him to stop and return. It was a strange feeling. He doubted the success of this mission, but he would disappoint his superiors and be labeled a failure if he returned without completing the mission based on some intuition. Worse, he will be called weak. His ego took charge and sent him galloping on his way.

When he entered, everyone was trying to run and find a way out, but the exits were locked. He had locked them just as he did before using the only available route in, or out. He smiled when he saw the people cowering, begging for their lives.

He slowly unsheathed his sword and marched forward.

A sight caught his eye and he paused for a minute. This was strange. Stranger than the stupid feeling he had earlier.

A woman was staring at him. She was unfazed by the events happening in the building. It seemed she didn’t care about what he was doing. He marched toward her but she kept her head up, her jaws set, and her eyes on him.

He yelled at her, “Won’t you run and beg for your life?” she didn’t say a word. He hit her hard across the chin. She fell off her chair, got back up, and kept staring at him. 

A few of the people who were running for their lives stayed to watch this scene from afar. 

The soldier dragged her by the hair.  She didn’t say one word while he was beating and commanding her to beg him for her life. 

The slim man broke down and it seemed he wouldn’t be able to continue, but he got himself under control. He had brought them out of a trance with his loud voice. All the while he was narrating, his voice went into a low tune that caught everyone off-guard. They didn’t have to strain to hear him, but he had captivated- no- he had enchanted them.

“You see,” the loud voice came again, “what angered me then was simple- "I lived for the cries and pleas for me to spare their lives. That’s why I’m here to try and help you spare yours.

“I preach the gospel because of that woman. She wasn’t defiant, no. She was peaceful, so much that it irritated me. She made me look like I didn’t know my job. Like I was not scary enough. Like death wasn’t scary enough.

“I am a changed man now. I do not blame you if you judge me by my past. I just want you to know that no matter what life you are living now, there is always hope for redemption.

Look at me, many call me a great teacher, but now you know how I became that teacher.

Once you come in contact with something that gives you peace- that shows peace and serenity such as that woman had, there is nothing that can take you away.

“I learned a vital lesson then. That woman was a blinding light that illuminated my soul while exposing how awful my ways were.’’

He looked up and around the room once again. People were carrying different expressions, some hurt, some sorrowful. Most were crying.

“If you come in contact with ‘this woman’, your life will change forever. You will be free and you will be delivered because you will find joy and you will know what true peace feels like.

"You know who I was. I didn’t know I was in bondage, bound up by the shackles of ignorance and ungodliness. It took me a long time to realize this, but now I do. I was wrong. I was broken, but since that day, I’ve been found and I’ve been fixed.

"It may take you a while as well, but once you have an encounter similar to mine, you will become like me. You will have a new life, a new name. The old man inside of me no longer lives- he is dead and gone.

“Your turning point may not be a calm woman. It may come in different forms. But in whatever way your moment of epiphany comes, I hope you will understand it.

"So, people of God, lift your heads. The encounter will wipe off every stain. It will shut out every voice of shame and regret. You will stop fighting because the fight has already been won. I’m no longer haunted by the ghosts that lived in my past.  I’ve been set free. You will be set free too.”