Henry's Epiphany

Henry was a man who worked hard every day of his life. He felt a certain amount of pride in having earned everything he owned, but also felt some resentment in not getting the help in life that he felt others received. It was a strange dichotomy, being proud of his own accomplishments while wishing he didn’t have to accomplish everything on his own. He worked a regular job that wasn’t particularly fulfilling, but served the purpose of providing an income. The income wasn’t lavish, but was sufficient to provide everything he needed at the expense of many of the things he wanted. His home was acceptable. It was sturdy and big enough for him, but wasn’t the kind of home that warranted a second glance by a passerby. All things considered, he lived a good life, but felt it wasn’t quite the life he deserved. After all, he worked really hard for this life while he saw other people around him living a life seemingly well above his own while investing far less sweat equity than he had.

One day, on his way to his car in the parking lot at work, a man stepped out of the shadows and wrestled Henry to the ground. The stranger was strong, but didn’t seem interested in hurting Henry. Henry wrestled against the grip of the stranger but never called for help. After a few minutes, the stranger abruptly released his grip on Henry and retreated into the shadows before Henry could get a good look at him. Henry, exhausted from the struggle, lay on the concrete for a moment before rolling over and pushing himself to his feet.

He drove home, curious about his encounter in the parking lot. He pulled into his driveway and turned off his car, still perplexed by the events at work. He got out of his car and stretched. His muscles were tired from the struggle. His arms ached where the stranger had grabbed him and his head pounded from the increase in his blood pressure. He trudged into his home and dropped his lunch box on the kitchen floor. He didn’t have the energy to cook dinner, so he microwaved some leftovers from the night before. After dinner, he crawled into bed and went to sleep, knowing he had to be at work early the next day.

Henry woke up the next day, fairly refreshed but still sore from the encounter with the stranger the night before. He filled a cup full of cheerios to eat on the way to work and threw a few snack items into his lunch box to get himself through the day. He walked to his car and opened the door and sat his lunch box on the front seat and put his cheerios in the cup holder. No sooner had he released his grip on his breakfast cup that he was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground with considerable force. He fought against his attacker with zeal and determination. Once again, Henry was able to fight off his attacker without calling for help.

He got up from the ground and brushed the dirt from his clothes and drove to work. This pattern repeated itself every day for several weeks. Henry would fall prey to a blitz attack by a stranger from the shadows. The two would struggle on the ground for a few moments with only grunts and gasps punctuating the event. Then the stranger would retreat as quickly as he had come, leaving Henry to wonder where the stranger had gone and why this kept happening to him. It seemed that he only got attacked when he was doing something that had to be done as part of his daily routine. He got attacked on the way to and from work. He got attacked at the grocery store and at the gym. He got attacked on the way to church and on the way to dinner with his family. He never got attacked in his own home when he was wasting time in front of the television or while he was hanging out at the bar with his work buddies.

            The effect that the conflicts with the stranger had on him were obvious to himself and everyone around him. He was exhausted all the time. His attitude, though not great to begin with, got worse and worse. He didn’t enjoy the things he had before. His hobbies were just one more thing using up his precious energy. The stranger from the shadows was wearing him down and making his mediocre life so much less bearable. Henry began to resent more and more about his life. Every little annoyance was like another ton of frustrating burden added to his shoulders.

All the same, he never asked for help. He insisted on bearing this ever-growing burden on his own. He could have spoken to his bosses at work about adding a security camera in the parking lot to catch the stranger. He could have spoken to his church family about having someone ride with him back and forth to work to lend a hand when the stranger attacked. He could have prayed to God for help, but he didn’t. In fact, his communications with God became more and more rare with every attack. To a certain extent, he began to blame the attacks on God. After all, God knew everything. He was aware of the attacks. God didn’t need a report from Henry detailing the issues he had been dealing with and what kind of help he needed. God knew all that.

 Henry even began to wonder if the attacks were from God. Maybe God was trying to tell him something. Maybe he wanted him to move or change careers. Maybe God was trying to push him in a direction Henry didn’t want to go. That worried Henry, but he refused to talk to God about it. As far as Henry was concerned, God was all-powerful. He could easily speak to Henry in a way that Henry would respond to. He didn’t have to attack him in the parking lot.

Henry chose through all this frustration, to keep silent and suffer alone.

One day, the stranger attacked him in his driveway with a particularly vicious attack. The stranger was so strong, and Henry was so exhausted from the earlier attacks. They rolled around in the driveway kicking and grunting. Henry swung his fists at the stranger and endured many blows in return. In the midst of the fight, Henry was reminded of the passage in the Bible where Jacob wrestled with the angel of God in the middle of the night. As he rolled over and put the stranger in a headlock, Henry spoke to the stranger for the first time.

“I wish you’d just dislocate my hip and bless me already,” Henry grunted. “This fighting is getting old.”

Henry felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned his head without letting go of the stranger. There behind him stood a figure that looked like a man, but not like any man Henry had seen before. A light emanated from the figure in a way that remined Henry of a solar eclipse. Like the figure was too bright to look at except that it was blocked by something or was turned away so that Henry could only see the figure’s backside.  Even so, the light of the figure was so bright, Henry could hardly stand it. The man pointed at the stranger and spoke to Henry.

“That’s not me you’re fighting with, Henry,” he explained, “He may dislocate your hip, but I guarantee that you won’t get a blessing out of him. That’s the devil. I’ve been right here every time he’s attacked you waiting for you to tap me in so that I could help you fight this battle, but you’ve been too focused on yourself to call for help.”

Henry let go of the stranger, who ran off into the darkness. Henry turned towards the man who shined in the darkness, averting his eyes slightly against the brightness.

“What are you talking about?” Henry asked with no small amount of confusion.

“Every attack you’ve endured has been at the hands of the devil and his servants,” the shining figure explained. “I’ve been with you every time but you refused to ask me for help. After a while, you even gave me the silent treatment. If you had been studying my Word as I have asked you to, you would have been so much more prepared for those attacks. More importantly, you would have known that those attacks were not from me. Had you been in more regular communication with me, you would have been ready and willing to call to me for help. You would have reached out to my other children in your life and leaned on them. Instead, you allowed your discontentment with your life and your anger at the attacks to be your guiding forces. You allowed your pride to keep you from the resources you had available to you.”

Henry stood before God unable to speak. He had finally gotten the communication had had desired and found himself completely unprepared for the message that God had for him.

“Look,” God continued. “I know you better than you know yourself. I knit you together in your mother’s womb. I know every thought you have and every desire you strive to fulfill. I know you in a way that’s completely incredible and incredibly embarrassing from your perspective at times. No one in this world knows you better than I do. The reason we don’t have the relationship we should is because you aren’t trying to get to know me anymore. I am completely unfathomable. You can study me every day for the rest of your life and into eternity and never get bored. I want a relationship with you that is more fulfilling than any career and any possession you could ever acquire. If you truly want fulfillment in life, search me, not the world. When you search the world, you’ll find strangers in the shadows. I’m your heavenly father, your steadfast friend. I have your best interests at heart. Lean on Me. Lean on the believers I’ve put in your life. Find your fulfillment in our relationship and you’ll find true happiness and complete contentment.”

With the utterance of that last word, the Figure faded into the evening. Henry stood there and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness as he thought about everything that had been said to him. He couldn’t deny anything. He hadn’t been in the Word. He probably wouldn’t have recognized God if he hadn’t literally tapped him on the shoulder. He hadn’t spoken to God for months. Even before the attacks started, he hadn’t been much of a conversationalist. He couldn’t remember the last time he had opened the Bible for any reason other than to follow along with the Sunday morning reading. How could he have been so dense as to think he could get what he wanted out of life by himself? He couldn’t even figure out what he wanted half the time.

Henry shook his head and walked into his house with a new resolve. He resolved to study God for the rest of his life and into eternity and never be bored again. He resolved to lean on God and his fellow believers and never fight alone.