“He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness” (1 Corinthians 4:5).
As Allen and Mike set off “walking on air” down the road toward the valley in front of them, Mike raised his eyebrows and asked, “Remember I told you that you were chosen?” Allen nodded a “Yes.”
“Well, I’m going to tell you why.” Mike paused. “Do you remember when you came home from school today and made a remark about it being a bad day, I believe you called it a ‘bummer’?”
A frown creased Allen’s face. “Yep, I sure do.”
“Do you remember what happened that caused you to make that remark?”
Allen cleared his throat before he answered Mike’s question. “It’s kind of involved. Are you sure you want to hear this?”
Mike’s eyes widened. “Sure I do.”
Allen scanned every crease in Mike’s face. He thought, “He seems really interested in what I have to say. I may as well blurt it out, even though I know if I told it to other people, most of them would laugh at me.“Well, today some of my friends were arguing at school about some things that happened last night. It all started with this new girl in school. A bunch of my friends and I hang out together. It’s really cool because even though we’re all different we get along fine. We have great fun going places and doing things—like movies, school events, gabbing about guy stuff, or whatever else comes up. Some of us belong to the same clubs or play on the same sports’ teams. My favorite sport is wrestling. The guys usually stick together and the girls often have slumber parties and stay up all night talking about us guys.”
When Allen heard Mike smothering a laugh, he sensed he was on a roll and continued, “But there are some things that go on, that if our parents knew about them, it would mean trouble for some in the gang.”
“And—?” A concerned frown crossed Mike’s face. Allen wondered if he should say any more. “Go ahead. Tell me more,” encouraged Mike.
“He probably knows what I’m thinking anyway,” thought Allen. Mike smiled.
“Anyway, awhile back a new girl named Stacy started attending our school. She was in one of my classes, very friendly, and seemed to get along well with everyone. But soon things started to happen that have ruined some of the friendships.”
Mike shook his head. “Go on.”
“Stacy invited some girls over to her house. She introduced them to weird stuff like witchcraft, witches, and wizards. She even showed them how to cast spells on people. Most of the girls were fascinated by it, but one girl, Conny, was unhappy about it. The other girls called her a spoilsport. Anyway, they decided they wanted us guys to be included. So one night we all gathered at Stacy’s house. At first no one believed in all the hocus pocus, but as time went on we all thought there might be something to it.” Allen paused and shifted nervously back and forth. “Are you sure you want to hear this?” Allen wondered why he was doing this, what would Mike care about it?
Mike gave a curt nod, “Absolutely. Please continue.”
“So last night about a half a dozen of us went over to Stacy’s house. I told my parents a group of us were going to do homework assignments over there. Stacy took us downstairs to a special room in their basement where it was really dark. The only light came from candles. A strong odor of incense burned my nostrils and it was hard to breathe. Huge posters with strange symbols and spectacular pictures of outer space were on all the walls. I remember thinking that looking at them actually gave the feeling you were traveling in space. It was eerie. With the candles flickering, it gave a kind of hypnotic feeling.
“Stacy motioned for us to sit down on pillows around a low round table in the middle of the room. The gang got very quiet. Stacy told us how great it was that we could all get together and assured us ‘we’re going to have a great time.' Everyone kinda laughed nervously, but down deep inside we were all wondering what was going to happen next.”
Mike exhaled a huge sigh. “Hmmmmm, I see.”
Allen blinked twice. His lip twitched and he carried on. “Stacy asked if we believed in a spirit world. Most of us said we believed there was a something out there, maybe a heaven or some other realm inhabited by beings, maybe even a hell for those bad dudes. That got a chuckle from some, but not from Bill Morgan. He called us all superstitious and insisted once you die—that’s it. There’s no afterlife, no other dimension, that’s all bunk.”
Mike’s mouth turned down at one corner. “I can’t say I’m surprised by all the different opinions. What did Conny think?”
“I don’t know. She was very quiet. Didn’t seem very enthusiastic about the whole discussion. Stacy finally interrupted and said she didn’t know about heaven and hell and all the stuff we learned in Sunday school and church, but she believed in a spirit world. She said she had actually had some contact with it. At that, we all sat in an awkward silence for a few seconds until one of the girls accused her of making this stuff up.”
“I bet Stacy didn’t like that!” injected Mike.
“Stacy didn’t budge. She sat up real straight and said in a forceful voice, “I’m not making this up, and my folks believe in it too.” Then she went into this long spiel about how they believed there are spirits and gods of earth and nature; beings that protect and guard our environment; spirits that ride the wind and take up residence in animals. It sounded like something out of a Hollywood horror movie.”
Mike rubbed his chin. “Were you nervous?”
“Kind of, but I wouldn’t show it. I was curious too, especially when she told us how she spends a lot of time learning more about a world she called the occult. It seems all these areas of the spirit world are tied together.”
“Did anyone else challenge her opinion?”
“Yes, Conny did. She had been very quiet during the whole discussion, but she came right out and told Stacy she had heard it was risky maybe even dangerous to be drawn into that occult stuff.” Allen raked his fingers through his hair. “Stacy didn’t appreciate Conny’s view at all. She kept on ranting, lecturing us about how religious people just want to keep people from understanding the spirit world and won’t approve of any contact or communication with the spirits of another world.”
Mike whistled. “Wow! Do you think any of your friends talked to their families about this meeting?”
Allen’s eyebrows shot up, “No way. Stacy told us it probably wasn’t a good idea to discuss it at home because our parents might not understand and would stop us from getting together for some fun. She was so convincing that everyone agreed.
“But what happened next really bent my mind. Stacy said, ‘Just for the heck of it, let’s see if we can contact what we call The Other Side, okay?’ When I talked with some of my friends today at school they said they had a ‘hold it’ go off inside their heads. But peer pressure won out and we decided to go ahead and see if there was anything to it. She had never gone this far with the girls before.”
All during this conversation with Mike, Allen kept wondering whether he should share all the details with Mike. “What am I doing? Why am I telling him all this? Why would he want to know anything about this? Oops, there goes that ‘machine gun’ again!”
He stopped and, yes, there was that look from Mike again—the one where he smiles and appears to be reading minds.