HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 8

ARLO ALDO

WITH HER ENTICING SPEECH SHE CAUSED HIM TO YIELD, WITH HER FLATTERING LIPS SHE SEDUCED HIM. IMMEDIATELY HE WENT AFTER HER, AS AN OX GOES TO THE SLAUGHTER (Proverbs 7:21, 22)

            I felt Penny’s warm breath on my face as she spoke with her lips only an inch away from mine. “Arlo, Honey, do you have protection?”

            Penny implied carnal protection, as we had been on the verge of fornicating. But it spoke to me of spiritual protection, what was I doing about to fornicate? Penny and I weren’t married!

            “You’re right!” I blurted, leaping from her bed as if it were on fire. I grabbed my jeans, and hurriedly began to dress. Several scriptures passed before me like the scenes of one’s life before they die.

            The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, is not of the Father but of the world (1 John 2:16). Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts (Romans 6:12). Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Flee sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18). Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11). Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed (James 1:14). Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, Nor let her allure you with her eyes (Proverbs 6:25).

            “Right about what? Where are you going?” she asked with her lovely large brown eyes looking pleadingly.

            “I need protection,” I croaked.

            “Hold on.” she said. Once again, my mind was on spiritual protection. While her mind was on carnal as she opened her nightstand and pulled out a box of condoms.

            She glanced guiltily at me, but then scowled. “Don’t judge me. I’m not promiscuous. The last time I had a guy in here the snow was flying, and it’s now October.”

            “I’m not judging. I’m leaving.”

            “Oh great!” she said disgustedly. I didn’t know if she meant about me leaving, or that the box of prophylactics turned out to be empty as she shook it. Maybe both.

            “I’ll see you later, Penny. I’m truly sorry.”

            She sprang from the bed and grabbed my hand. “Arlo, come lay back down.”

            Her words and actions reminded me of Joseph fleeing from Potiphar’s wife. (Genesis 39:7-12). This recollection caused me to jerk my hand from hers. In the ambiance of the dim light I could see her jaw clench as she grabbed my hand back. “I’m not Potiphar’s wife!”

            Was it a coincidence that she spoke of what I was thinking? She pleaded. “I’m the woman whose strawberry milkshake shake you’ve been tasting for the last half hour. Remember?”     She went on tip toes and pressed her mouth firm against mine. Oh, I remembered alright!

            I look at the cosmic conflict we are doing battle with like balance scales. When you are drawn away by lust, the carnal side rises and the spiritual lowers. On the other hand, when you behold Jesus, pray, ask for the Holy Spirit to help you (John 14:26) and personally study your Bible, the spiritual side of the balances can rise to the top and bottom out the carnal. Thereby by living out righteousness by faith.

            James 4:7 instructs us to submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And the devil can come to you in the guise of a naturally beautiful woman who desires you. I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t do a thorough job of resisting her. Portions of those verses I recited may have passed through my mind, but not my heart. I didn’t ask the Helper, AKA Holy Spirit to help. Instead I satisfied my carnal instinct.

            I wanted to flee once the sexual indulgence was over. But Penny hooked a leg over mine, wrapped an arm across my chest, nuzzled her head into the crook of my neck and chest as she sighed with satisfaction. I was trapped! Sure, I could have flung her off like a rag doll, but we had just done the most intimate act that two human beings can do. I may have sinned, but I still needed to be a gentleman, even if I lay there wallowing in the vomit of my sin (Proverbs 26:11).

            “Arlo, I’m sorry,” Penny said quietly. “Guys aren’t exactly lining up to go out with me. But I’ve never coerced a guy like I just did you tonight.”

            “You didn’t put a gun to my head.”

            “It felt like it.”

            “It’s only because I want to live a righteous life.”

            She winced. “Not only did I beg a guy to sleep with me, I led him to betray his faith.”

            She didn’t mean to, but her words betrayed my faith like a knife in the gut. Somehow I forced a smile, and kissed her head, taking in the scent of her rose shampoo. She was like a basic, no frills model of a female. “I went willingly, Pen. You did not beg me. You’re a natural beauty I just couldn’t resist. You’re the most physically pure woman I’ve ever been with.”

            She lifted her head and looked at me. She smiled, but her eyes were watery. She kissed me. “Ya know, if you want to live a righteous life, you ought not lie. Now get out of here, ya big lug. But I do want to ask you one favor.”

            “Okay?”

            “Tonight was a one off so please don’t kiss and tell. But most important, give Abby a chance. I know she’s head over heels for you. I feel like I horned in.”

            I was stunned, and I didn’t know what to say. She was forcing a smile, but tears ran down her cheeks. I wiped them with my thumb. Did the woman I was in bed with just say I should pursue another woman she knew? The strangest postcoital I had ever experienced. And I was a rock star! Or had been.

            The next day I sat across from Abby’s pastor as he sat behind a desk in his office. His name was Kirk Samson. He had been an Army Chaplain for many years, honorably discharged with the rank of Captain. So most of his congregation affectionately referred to him as Captain Kirk.

            He stroked his long white beard, his intense blue eyes on mine as he listened to me relive the previous night with Penny. I actually wept as I finished talking, wiping my eyes as well as blowing my nose with a tissue the good Captain had given me. He leaned forward with his elbows propping him up on his desk. “Son, have you ever dropped the soap in the shower?”

            I frowned. Was he nuts? When I heard his sermon the previous Sabbath, I had never listened to such reason. I had never heard a preacher quote more Scripture. That’s why I called on him and was grateful when he made time to see me. Then after I pour my heart out, he asks if I ever drop the soap during a shower?

            “Of course,” I blurted, instantly regretting the impatience in my tone.

            “What’d you do?”

            “What do you mean what did I do? I picked it up.”

            “And then what?”

            Why did I just confess such a shameful thing to this virtual stranger? He had struck me as such a wise, Godly man the other day. But now one on one with him, it appeared he had a screw loose. “I continued on with my shower,” I said, placating him.

            “Son, you dropped the soap with the woman you were indiscreet with,” he told me. “Your tearful confession was picking it up. Now move on and keep getting yourself spiritually clean.”

            Okay, he was wise after all. He was just giving me an object lesson. A little parable if you please. He picked up a Bible on his desk, flipped through some pages until he found what he was looking for. He handed it to me and asked me to read 1 John 2:1. “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

            “You may have violated the law of God,” Captain Kirk told me when I finished. He leaned forward, a twinkle in his bright blue eyes. “But by confession and repentance you have hired Jesus as your lawyer. Our Savior is so many things to us. Our Redeemer, The Prince of Peace, The Wonderful Councilor, The Bread of Life, just to name a few… But He is also our lawyer, and He has never lost a case!”

            “Thanks, Pastor, I needed that!”

            “Praise God!” the pastor smiled. Then his face grew serious. “Son, may I say something that might be out of bounds?”

            “I don’t know what you mean, but please say whatever is on your heart.”

            Those intense blue eyes looked cautious. “I assume the woman in your story is someone other than Abby. She told me you two were simply friends, and that she hasn’t known you long.”

            “No, Sir, it wasn’t Abby.”

            “Good. Now, I need to tread carefully here. When I council with people, it’s in the strictest of confidences. But in a case like yours and Abby’s, your relationships intertwine. So I know that you know that she has some quite serious issues herself.”

            “Yes, Sir, I do.”

            “Good. So please tread carefully with her.”

            “I will… Sir, did she tell you about my background?”

            He nodded. “That you were married a couple of years, but recently divorced.”

            I nodded. “Did she tell you how my wife and I met?”

            He shook his head, leaned back in his chair, laced his hands together, and clearly expected an unusual story. He got one. I told him all about her being with a Christian organization that was protesting outside one of our concerts.

            “So you were deeply involved in the occult?” he asked with a concerned frown. “How long and how deep?”

            “Well, almost twenty years. But how deeply involved, only God knows. I never took the actual… how do I put it? …religious aspect of devil worship seriously. I viewed myself like an actor playing a part in our band. The most egregious thing I ever did was in the beginning, before we had major success. I took part in a satanic ritual, where we, um, well, sold our souls for rock and roll so to speak.”

            “I see,” Pastor Samson replied as his frown deepened. “That’s very, very dangerous spiritual ground to have walked.”

            “I know, believe me, I know. I was nineteen years old. So at the time I looked at what we did like playing the Ouija board, you know, like a game.”

            “More spiritual danger,” Captain Kirk interjected. “The Ouija board is a game that is no game at all! People unwittingly invite the demonic into their lives when they mess with that.”

            “Yeah, I know. That’s why I never had true peace the whole time I was in the band. On the other hand, there was a lot to take my mind off of the danger. Money, fame, models for girlfriends. I didn’t party as hard or fornicate with a variety of women like the other guys. I was actually in a committed relationship for eight years.”

            “But you never married?”

            “Nope.”

            “May I ask why?”

            I chuckled. “I guess you could say I didn’t want to be yoked to someone who wanted to be yoked to a rock star from a satanic band. But with Reese, she’s my ex-wife, she wasn’t romantically interested in me until after my conversion. Ironically, we were married six months after we met. In eight years with Elsa, I never even considered proposing.”

            “Why caused your breakup with Elsa?”

            “My Christian conversion.”

            “What happened with you and your wife?”

            “When I became a Sabbath keeper, it didn’t sit well with her. But, to whatever degree, it was also a convenient excuse for her to start seeing another man she fancied. They married before the ink was dry on our divorce.”

            “How did your bandmates take your conversion?”

            “Izzy, the singer, leader, and the one who took satanism the most serious, hated me. He even told me he was gonna put curse on me. Kyle, the drummer, was too immersed in addiction to care much. Eli, the lead guitarist, and my best friend was happy for me.”

            I told him about how Eli was interested in God, but noncommittal. But that he had asked me to pray for him and was reading his Bible on a regular basis. I explained our history, and how it was actually here in the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area where we first met as seventeen year olds. I told him about Eli recently finding out that he has a son and granddaughter, and how we had been toying with forming a band with his son and his wife. I was quick to point out that they were Christians.

            Then I went rigid. Eli! What would he think of my Christian witness if he found out about Penny and me? Would he find out? Should I tell him? Or should I just wait to see if the ball dropped, and then humbly admit my indiscretion?

            I put my face in my hands and groaned. “Pastor, I have another dilemma.”