Chapter 8
(Please read chapters 1-6 for the context of the weaving of nonfiction topics and a fictional story unveiling a historical truth)
reading time:8 minutes
A Hollywood celebrity seems to come from nowhere and stars in a hit TV program. He is gifted with handsome looks and works out at the gym every day. His career as an actor is safe as long as he falls in line with the Hollywood narrative of the story we have all been told. He is smart enough not to rebel against that narrative and throw away his chance for fame and fortune.
He has a screen presence that demands attention. Women at every party want him. Just when he is about to blow the last of his money, his talents are recognized and he signs a huge contract to star with a lovely female star in the next big movie. She also works out every day, and people love and follow her abs. And other parts she is happy to take pictures of to share with the world.
They love to take pictures of themselves to stay relevant. And what could the possibilities be if they combined forces? During filming, they fall in love. All of the online celebrity sites love them.
Turning from their famous lifestyles of multiple conquests, the two stars marry. On the surface, they are a beautiful multi-million -dollar home. But there are deepening cracks in the cement driveway and in the walls of their five-car garage. And the metal fence posts have started leaning. With all the fame, money, and accessorized peripheral men and women, a void like a sinkhole under their skin is expanding inside of them.
What will fill the void?
They long ago rejected the Author of the other Story and surrounded themselves with those who share and protect the worldview that profits them.
A new mistress arises in his life: illegal drugs. They numb him to the growing pains of the sinkhole within him, and give him a sense of control over his life. He pops a pill, he feels better and forgets about the expanding void.
When the lovely costar of his life threatens to leave him, he enters rehab. The media proclaims how authentically transparent he is. He goes in and out of rehab facilities every few months.
Months later, the void swallows him up. The never-satisfied gaping mouth-hole gulps and seeks others after his suicide.
Hundreds come to see the sinkhole swallow him up six feet under in a wonderful ceremony celebrating his life.
She goes to rehab to become a hero survivor trying to live on shifting ground with her ever-expanding sinkhole.
What happened?
You have seen this scene play out hundreds of times to varying degrees with celebrities, athletes, politicians, and everyday people including ourselves. Power, money, drugs, alcohol, and promiscuous sex lead to an early death or suicide. We know this story.
People and even countries live out the same cycle of blessings, abuse of blessings, loss of blessings, crying out for help, return of blessings, and the cycle starts all over again.
Why do we keep falling into this repeating trap?
How can we embrace the truth of life and live out our full potential in the roles the Author gives us in this Story?
You then remember the camera the man gave you. There it is, hidden under a section you cut out of your old wood floor. It’s cold underground, but the box with the camera warms your hands. A red light flashes through the edges of the closed box.
How is it flashing? I turned it off weeks ago.
The camera is whirring. You grab the cable and hook it up to your laptop. There is movement on the screen. Shadows of large objects move in multiple directions. Words come onto the screen, reminding you of the beginning of a Star Wars movie. Or maybe these words inspired the Star Wars story?
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
A flash of light slashes across the screen. An unseen hand moves small objects into larger objects. Before your eyes, chaos is becoming order and structure. Someone is filling a great dark void. The smaller and larger objects morph into a land with plants, animals, water, and sky that no one could find words worthy enough to describe.
How could anyone say this is random?
Beings you cannot identify fill the screen. They each have a common light within them. They gather and bow in front of you. One of the beings seems to be greater than the others and stops bowing. Others stop bowing and gather behind the main being refusing to bow.
The camera records what moves before you—the camera is on the throne of God! It is clipped onto His majestic robe! You are not God but see things as He sees them. The unveiling before you is through His point of view (POV).
New words scroll from bottom to top on the screen.
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth …
Isaiah 14:12
The main being moves toward you with increasing speed accompanied by about a third of the other beings before you. The light within them is dimming. It turns into a dark light within them as their teeth and fangs close in on you. The camera stays unmoved upon the throne. Though the visual of what is coming after you will haunt your future nightmares, it is what you hear that makes you gasp along with the hairs reaching for help on the back of your neck that grabs your attention.
Run! Never look back! Save me!
The Dark Light from the main being, spreads to its followers, like a slithering tsunami of guttural screaming. It rises above the camera’s visual field—and then everything goes dark.
What happened?
The camera stops whirring, and the red light turns off.
Something tells you this is where we went wrong. You just witnessed the beginning of all the sins of humanity: the murders, the slavery, the racism, the rapes, our awful secret sins, and the poisonous words we use.
What happened with the attack?
Your chest pounds and your breathing shallows.
Are they coming after me?
What is our role in this war? Do we side with the POV shown, or do we side with the one-third of the beings?
Can you and I resist the tsunami that seeks to crush us?
Do we join it in order to survive? Do we fight it and die?
Even if we wanted to resist it, for the sake of love and justice and peace for our brothers and sisters, how do we resist the tsunami of the story we have always been told?
Who will fill the expanding void within each of us?
Raise up the other Story,
Charles Anthony Solorio
The view from the throne is different from our view.
top photo credit Engin Akyurt, Unsplash
middle photo credit Amber Kipp, Unsplash
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Thank you for reading my blog. I hope to write many more to demonstrate God’s love for humanity, unity, true racial and social justice, all from a different POV than is presented to us on a regular basis. Read my novella, New Seed and Hard Ground, or get the first chapter for free if you sign up for my email updates. Let’s get to know each other better at charlesanthonysolorio.com
