Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: SWIM (07/21/22)
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TITLE: Drowning—a monologue | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laurie Kiel
07/28/22 -
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Drowning. Sometimes, that’s what life can feel like. Drowning in stress, drowning in money worries, drowning in health concerns. And I think of a woman in the Bible who might have felt at times like she was drowning. I wonder what it would have been like to be King David’s wife, Michal.
SHE REMOVES COAT SHOWING SHE’S WEARING ROYAL COSTUME
Drowning. How could I feel like I’m drowning when the only water I’ve ever been near is the daily bath that the royal maid brings me. But I’ve watched the townspeople swim and frolic in the lake.
Just watching them gives me nightmares of falling into the water and having it carry me away. I cannot swim. I would be at its mercy. Just like I was always at the mercy of my father, King Saul, and the other men in my life. Carrying me away, a tide I could not fight against.
I remember when I was a young girl and David captured my heart. And I began to believe I could swim with him. Not in water of course (SCOFFING) that would ruin my hair and makeup. But swim through life... I would close my eyes and imagine David swimming, so strong and powerful.
And when Father told me I would be marrying David, it was almost enough to make me go dancing on the shore splashing water in my bliss. And I could almost imagine swimming through life with him, his strong hand in mine, keeping me from being swept away.
Or better yet, David could be my boat, sailing me away from the treacherous tides of my Father’s palace. But I was foolishly naïve. I was just a pawn, swept away by the raging waters of my father’s rabid jealousy of David, drowning in the intrigue.
Eventually, the currents of my father’s rage swept me away from David and into the arms of Paltiel, a marriage purely designed to hurt David. I was so gasping for air at that point, buffeted by the waves of intrigue, I welcomed the beach of being with Paltiel. He was a good man. Probably not a swimmer.
But I had long given up the dream of swimming with my love. I was ready for the calm, waveless sanctuary of Paltiel, No excitement, no frolicking in the waves of life, but no storms threatening to drown me.
Or so I thought. David wins the kingdom from my father, and next thing you know David’s demand for his rightful prize (me) sweeps me away from my sanctuary with Paltiel into the stormy waters of the royal palace. Paltiel was drowning in his own tears as he traipsed behind us wailing. But I had no tears. I had enough drowning to worry about.
And then came the day when I looked out my window and saw my husband, the King of Israel, frolicking in his linen ephod in the street, like a child playing at the lakeside. Waves of humiliation washed over me. My husband was making a fool of himself, and I would not be swept away by that wave.
When David returned home, I went out to meet him (SARCASTIC) “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” (2 Sam 6:21b) I stood there rooted by the anchor of my perceived moral superiority.
And David ripped my anchor away. He stared at me and slowly, deliberately said, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” 2 Samuel 6:21-22 NIV.
And he left me lonely and adrift. No possibility of ever swimming with David. My tongue had taken care of that.
(PUTS COAT BACK ON)
The Bible says that Michal never had any children. She died, childless drowning in loneliness. I refuse to be a Michal, letting circumstances sweep me away from God’s best. I will not drown in circumstances. For unlike Michal, I, and many of you, know Jesus, calmer of the sea. And no one drowns clinging to Jesus.
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Great job,
Blessings~