MidReal Story

The Unseen Path

Scenario:Journey to Atheistism helping others
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Journey to Atheistism helping others
It was a beautiful day today.
The only problem with days like this is they make it hard to remember why I’m doing what I’m doing.
I guess that’s why they call me lazy.
Lazy because I don’t want to spend all my time working for some future reward.
Lazy because I don’t want to be a hypocrite.
Lazy because I want to enjoy the fruits of my labor now.
I was not always like this.
There was a time when I would have fit right in with the rest of the people at my old church.
I would have been judged as one of the "good Christians" instead of one of the bad atheists.
There was even a time when I thought God was answering my prayers.
When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, I prayed daily that she would not die.
When she died, I prayed that it wouldn’t be painful.
When she took two weeks to go, I thought it was because He was listening.
It didn’t matter that medicine said it would take two weeks; I thought it was because God was giving her time to say goodbye and find peace.
The Unseen Path
I walked up the familiar steps of my old church.
I had not been here in over a year, but I still remembered the way.
The outside of the building was unchanged.
It was a typical white church with a big steeple and a cross on top.
There were stained glass windows, and the door was usually open to welcome people into the house of God.
I took a deep breath and walked through the open door.
The service had already started, and there were about two hundred people sitting in the pews.
They were all listening to the pastor as he preached about faith and how it would be rewarded in heaven.
I stood at the back of the church, trying to decide if I wanted to go any further.
I looked around at all the familiar faces, but I did not see anyone I knew until I spotted Mark and his wife Sarah sitting near the front.
They were two rows away from my parents’ old pew, where they sat every Sunday before my mom died. Mark was one of my best friends growing up, even though we were very different.
He was always nice to me, even after I stopped going to church.
The Unseen Path
He never judged me for my decision or tried to convince me that I was wrong.
He just told me that he would always be there for me no matter what I chose to believe.
I looked around at all the other people who had judged me for my decision to stop believing in God.
Most of them were still sitting in their same pews, singing along with the hymn that was being sung by the choir.
I watched as they lifted their voices up to God, asking for forgiveness of their sins and thanking him for his blessings.
Their voices brought back memories of when I used to do the same thing every week.
I remembered how I used to feel like He was listening when I sang those songs and prayed those prayers. The song ended, and everyone sat back down in their seats as the pastor continued his sermon about how God rewards our faithfulness with good things in this life and great things in heaven.
Mark glanced back over his shoulder and caught my eye for a second before turning back around to listen to the rest of the sermon.
He looked surprised but happy to see me there that morning.
I took one last look around at all the people who had abandoned me when I stopped going to church, then I took a deep breath and stepped forward into my future.
I walked down an empty pew until I was standing behind Mark and Sarah in their pew.
"Hey, I didn't expect to see you here," Mark whispered, turning slightly to face me.
"Yeah, it's been a while," I replied, trying to keep my voice steady. "I just needed to see if anything felt different."
Sarah leaned in, her eyes soft with understanding. "Sometimes coming back is the only way to know if you've really moved on."i don't believe in this no more guys, why don't you come with me, and discuss this, then sarah looked at mark, let's try it mark.
The Unseen Path
I nodded, feeling a sense of disillusionment in her eyes that I recognized all too well.
"Let's take a walk," she whispered, nodding toward the door.
I followed her out of the pew and down the aisle.
We walked out of the church and down the steps to the sidewalk.
She looked around, trying to decide where to go.
She glanced up at me, then nodded toward the park across the street.
I knew that was where John usually hung out on Sundays.
He would sit on a bench and drink coffee from a paper cup while he watched people come and go from church.
We walked across the street and into the park.
John was sitting on his usual bench, sipping his coffee from his paper cup.
He looked up when he saw us coming and smiled brightly.
"Hey, Caleb! Sarah!" he called out cheerfully as we approached him. We walked up to him and sat down on either side of him on his bench.
The Unseen Path
He looked at us with a curious expression, wondering why we were there instead of in church.
I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Sarah, waiting for her to explain why she had wanted to leave church early.
She leaned forward slightly, her eyes fixed intently on John as she asked him about his day.
John launched into one of his stories about how he had survived another day on the streets and how he was grateful for all the blessings God had given him that day.
Sarah listened intently as he told her about how he had found a quarter on the ground that morning and how it had bought him a cup of coffee from a food truck that stopped in front of the church every Sunday morning. She leaned closer to him as he told her about how he had seen a bird singing in a tree nearby and how it reminded him that God was still there even when things seemed darkest.
I watched her face as she listened to John's story about how God had helped him survive another day on the streets.
Her eyes lit up with interest as she listened to him talk about all the little ways God had blessed him that day.
She leaned closer to him as he told her about how God had helped him find food and shelter for the night before.
I could see her mind working as she tried to understand why John was so happy when he didn't have anything.
She looked at me with confusion in her eyes, then back at John with newfound respect in hers.
In that moment, I realized we were all searching for something that couldn't be found inside those church walls.
The Unseen Path