Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: REDUCE (11/05/15)
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TITLE: The Homecoming | Previous Challenge Entry
By Hannah Gaudette
11/12/15 -
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There was a level of excitement in the air, with the mid-summer party so near at hand and Addie’s first child due any day. There were pies to bake, juices to buy, tables to set up. So why on earth was Nick driving down the road in his shabby old pickup truck with nothing on his mind but away? Away from the noise, the chaos, the yelling children . . . away from life.
It was a question Nick himself couldn't answer. He didn't even know where he was going, exactly, just that a voice in his head had been telling him for the last month, “Go.” But where? Why?
Nick sighed heavily as he drove farther into the no-man's-land of the Rockies. He'd lived near these majestic steeples of rock all his life, but had never set foot on their slopes. He slowed the truck and looked up to where the mountains' invisible summits were buried behind clouds.
“Well, Polly,” he mumbled, addressing the border collie beside him who was feverishly panting in her seat, “why don't we take a look?”
They abandoned the truck and hiked for hours. Nick had no destination. The voices of the past played in his head like a symphony of summer crickets, but certainly not as welcoming. His first grandchild was about to be born, his wife was busy with their younger children as they set up for the party. Yet he was out here, with a depression he'd never known festering in his restless heart. Nick had fled the scene of a family get-together, tuning out all the hubbub and noise with it.
Nick and Polly came to a stop at a little lake. Nick sat down and watched Polly's hesitant attempts at swimming.
As the breeze blew in from the west a gorgeous summer afternoon, Nick lifted his wearisome eyes skyward.
“Okay, God. I don't know what I'm doing here, but here I am.” A need to continue his prayer spurred him on. “Work has been . . . overwhelming, to put it lightly. Ali – she's my wife, but I guess You know that – has been pressuring me to help out with the preparations more. Addie and Noel's first child is about to be born. My younger kids are hounding me at all hours to spend time with them.” He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands. “I'm done. I can't keep running an endless race like this. I'm out of breath.”
If Nick could have cried, he would have. But for twelve years, tears had been an obscure memory.
A wet nose touched his hand and he opened his eyes to Polly, who whined with her head on his lap. Then he looked skyward again. “I need help.”
At that simple, desperate request, a deep and profound message from God reached the weary man's heart. It's time to let go of the things you try so hard to control, to fix. It doesn't have to be like this. Cut down the pillars you've fastened your heart to, and turn to Me. Nick could almost feel a hand touch his shoulder. You don't have to fight on your own.
Nick drew in a shaky breath and sank to his knees. He could feel the pillars of lies, stress, and hopelessness crumbling, replaced by the Lord's cleansing love.
It was a new man who walked down the mountain with his dog that day. It was a new man who returned to his family, who gathered his children in his arms, who said a simple but heartfelt, “I love you” to his wife. Most of all, it was a new man who held his little grandson in his arms a week later, as a tear slipped down his cheek.
Fiction
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