Short Stories

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Purdue, MickeyDees, and Heaven
By Dan Blankenship
© 2003



It had never played out this way before. Greg had been to church a hundred times. He had sat through what he thought had to be the most-lame sermons in all recorded history, but he had also encountered, here and there, a preacher or two who managed to spark a few neutrons to life in “that cold agnostic brain” of his.


Today’s sermon was something different. Words. It wasn’t just words today. This preacher, William J. Abernathy, a guest speaker from a home for troubled youth in Atlanta, had managed to grab Greg’s attention from the beginning. Abernathy’s message was on the afterlife. But not just the afterlife: it was a verbal painting of the afterworld: heaven.


Greg, a nineteen-year-old freshman at Purdue Lafayette, attended church to uphold his end of the bargain. His parents had agreed to spare him the agony of taking drive-thru orders at the local MickeyDees if he committed his Sunday mornings to listening to the “men of God” talk about their boss. Not having to work a job gave him more time to study, but more importantly to Greg, more time to party.


For the first time in a long time, Greg was actually erect in his chair as Abernathy spoke. He noticed himself lean forward to try and hear the words better. This actually scared him a little, and he performed a quick scan of the auditorium to see if anyone he knew was there. He couldn’t shake it. Words. They had become something more…


“So now you should have this mental picture in your minds. A fifteen-year-old boy trapped in a cave, deep beneath the surface of the earth. His infant brother lost with him. They find the materials to survive underground while they await their rescue. The infant begins to grow and everyday the teenager teaches him more about the world he now lives in and the one above. Everyday they work together to dig their way out of the cave, in the hopes that their efforts will lead them back to the world from which they came.



“But as the days, months, and years pass, the child begins to question the older brother about the world outside of the cave. The child was too young at the time of their great misfortune and can only remember glimpses of truth about the land above the cave. At first he is content with his brother’s answers. But eventually, the child begins to doubt the stories his brother is telling him. He finds his brother’s stories to be unbelievable; a giant bright light that begins the day and a smaller one that signals its end; colorful plants surrounded by equally beautiful animals; dwellings full of the most amazing luxuries and air more pristine than can be imagined. Just stories; stories that even he could make up. The boy tells his brother how he feels and that he has accepted this world, the cave, and will listen no more to stories about the world above.



“Finally, on the boy’s tenth birthday, the two were rescued. As they were pulled to the surface a few rays of sunlight landed upon the boy, causing his pulse to quicken. Tears fell from his face. Not only from it being the first time the sun had assaulted his eyes, but out of the shame he felt. He had doubted his brother’s words. His brother, who had done everything for him: bathed him, found nourishment for him, gave him knowledge and understanding, and loved him for all of ten years.


“The young boy approached his brother, their rescuers gathered near to them, and asked for forgiveness. He didn’t try to explain all the reasons why he should have doubted his brother’s words. He simply said ‘I should have never have doubted the teachings of someone so committed to keeping me alive while all the odds were against me surviving. If you cared about me that much, you would have never led me astray with false hopes of a world that didn’t exist.’ The older brother took the younger brother in his arms and said ‘welcome home’ ”


Greg listened, really listened, as Abernathy closed his sermon…



“If there is not a heaven or a hell, then surely hell should be created for anyone that would make up a place called heaven. Historians cannot call Jesus a great man, a great teacher, a great humanitarian if this man is guilty of propagating a lie that gives a false hope. If Jesus spoke the truth, and I believe He did, heaven is not only a real place, a real time, and a real event, but a real hope. How can we ignore the gospel message when the men and women who bring it to us do so only because they are concerned with our eternal soul. I can think of no act more unselfish than the act of telling another human being about the eternal gift Jesus Christ has brought to our underworld. An act that may bring ridicule in our world, but the rejoicing of the saints in the world where we belong.”


The regular pastor took the microphone, an altar call was made. Greg’s seat was empty. A dislike for fast-food restaurant work, a guest speaker with a vivid message, and parents concerned with their Boilermakers future home had all played a part in Greg’s coming home. All the parties in Lafayette were of little interest to Greg now. He had just RSVPed for the biggest party in the universe.

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