Tag: faith

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 4

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 4

ARLO ALDO

HE WHO DOES NOT TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW AFTER ME IS NOT WORTHY OF ME. HE WHO FINDS HIS LIFE WILL LOSE IT, AND HE WHO LOSES HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE WILL FIND IT (Matthew 10:38, 39)

            “Arlo, I need you to pray for me,” Eli’s voice said into my ear, via the telephone.

            First I felt an adrenaline rush, fearing something was wrong with my dear friend and former bandmate. Then I felt hopeful. Over the course of two years I had tried to witness my faith to Eli. I was certain he dealt with the same nightmares and demonic harassment I had since leaving our satanic rock band, ‘The Sons of Molech.’ Anyway, this was the first time he had actually asked me to pray.

            “What’s going on, Eli? Are you okay?”

            “I am doing great. So far anyway.”

            “Hang on, I’ll come right over.”

            “Ah, I don’t think that’s possible.”

            “Why?”

            “I’m about two thousand miles away.”

            “What? Where?”

            “Iowa.”

            “Iowa! What are you doing in Iowa?”

            I had grown up in Iowa. It’s where Eli and I first met when we were seniors in high school. He only lived there a little more than a year. I had never known him to purposely return there, other than a handful of times when our band was on tour. But to him it was just another stop on the schedule. He had lived with his dad and stepmother during his seventeenth year of life. But he didn’t get along all that well with his dad and talked to him only once a year at the most.

            “Is your dad okay?” I inquired.

            “Huh? Oh… I don’t know. I haven’t seen him.”

            “What do mean you haven’t seen him? What on earth are you doing in Iowa then?”

            “You’re not gonna believe it.”

            “I already don’t.”

            He laughed, and I felt relieved. Whatever he wanted prayers for must not be too terrible.

            “Do you remember Ariel Grobstick?”

            “How could I forget her?” I replied as an image of her in gym class wearing short gym shorts popped into my head. Then I shook it off. I had been a happily married Christian and had made a covenant with my eyes not to lust after other women. (Job 31:1).

            But now my yearlong marriage was over. My former wife, the person who was instrumental in pulling me out of the occult and into Christ’s loving and forgiving arms, had left me because I had gone too deep into the Bible. That coupled with the handsome man who convinced her I was a fanatic. For they married just days after our divorce was finalized.

            But although single, I was only a few weeks from forty years of age. So it seemed inappropriate for my mind’s eye to focus on a seventeen year old girl sitting cross legged in gym class wearing  short shorts. Even if she was currently my age, I hadn’t seen her since we were teenagers.

            Ariel came from a religious home and although she was a knockout, who looked like she could be on the show ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ she didn’t date much due to parental restrictions. But I seem to recall another vision of her standing by her locker, hugging textbooks as her long dark hair flowed over her shoulders. She was gazing dreamily into the eyes of Eli, his own dark hair flowing over his shoulders.

            “Well, it seems I knocked her up right before you and I went west seeking fame and fortune.”

            My mind was grappling with this. Knocked her up? Slang for impregnation. “Are you saying Ariel birthed a child of yours?”

            “And raised.”

            “So you have a twenty something son or daughter?”

            “Yes, a twenty two year old son and a granddaughter that’s four or five… What was that clatter?”

            “Sorry, I dropped the phone…. So have you met them yet?”

            “Not yet. I just met with Ariel and her sister.”

            “I don’t remember Ariel having a sister.”

            “A little Tomboy named Penny.”

            “Penny… Penny. That doesn’t ring a bell.”

            “You know that smart mouthed chick you threw into the lake that time?”

            “That was Ariel’s sister! She was a cute little gal.”

            “She still is, and a doctor of veterinarian medicine to boot.”

            “Now that you mention it, I should have seen the resemblance… So that’s what you want prayers for? This brand new fatherhood situation.”

            “Yes indeed. I don’t know how much a 22 year-old is gonna want to know a father he never met.”

            “I’ll be glad to keep you in prayer. How long are you staying out there?”

            “If we hit it off, probably a couple weeks.”

            “Maybe I should come out for a couple weeks. I haven’t been home for quite a while.”

            “Should you do that when the school year isn’t over for Brenda?” he asked, knowing my now ex-wife was an elementary school teacher.

            “We haven’t talked for a while, have we?”

            “It’s been at least a few months. I guess because we don’t work together anymore,” he laughed.

            “Brenda divorced me.”

            “What! Why? What’d you do?”

            I chuckled with no humor. “I developed a closer walk with God through a deeper study of the Holy Bible.”

            There was a pause, and I wondered if I was doing the right thing confiding my relationship woes with him. I believed Eli was still wrestling with spiritual darkness, and I didn’t want what happened with Brenda and me to be a stumbling block.

            “I’m afraid I don’t understand, Al,” Eli said. Everyone in the inner circle of our band called me Al. Al being short for my last name. “Let me get this straight. You became a more hardcore Bible believer, and Brenda left you for that?” Eli used a profane word before he continued. “You met her while she was protesting one of our concerts, waving a sign that says ‘Jesus saves.’ To my limited understanding, it doesn’t get any more hardcore than that.”

            “Well, she also had a little help from a guy she used to teach with. She remarried him before the ink was dry on our divorce settlement. But that’s beside the point. We still would have had an issue with one Biblical doctrine in particular.”

            “Oh yeah, what was that?”

            “I discovered this ministry called ‘Amazing Facts.’ They proclaimed the Biblical Sabbath was Saturday rather than Sunday. I started discussing my findings with not only other church members, but her pastor as well. The man who married us. He actually got mad and asked me to stop attending if I was going to rebel.”

            (Amazing Facts has a web site called Sabbath truth that explains the Bible Sabbath.)

            “Let me get this straight. You were kicked out of a church for discussing the Bible.”

            “To be fair, I wasn’t kicked out. I was asked not to come if I was gonna cause trouble.”

            “Once again, discussing the Bible, in church, is causing trouble?”

            “Not conceding that he was right, and I was wrong, despite little scriptural evidence on his part. The more Bible texts I shared, the angrier he got.”

            I heard Eli snort in disgust. “That’s why I steer clear of religion malarky.”

            I instantly felt like I made a mistake. “Look, we may have disagreed, but that pastor is good man. In my zeal I may have gone about it in the wrong way. Maybe he’ll take a look at what I showed him. He does lead his congregation well in doing the basic Christian virtues. Helping the homeless, initiating clothing and food drives…”

            “Protesting rock concerts,” Eli interjected.

            “Hey, it turned my life around.”

            “Yeah, it got you married for two minutes and then broke your heart.”

            “Well, even the Bible warns that life isn’t gonna be easy.”

            “Yeah, so what’s the point?”

            Once again I felt like a bad witness for Christ. “Look, I’ve gotta close on the sale of my house, and get stuff in storage until I find another place. But I’m coming out there as soon as I can. We’ll talk more then about what’s been happening with me. It sounds like I need to catch up on you as well. Big time!”

            “I’d go say ‘hi’ to your parents,” Eli said. “But you know they blame your bandmates for leading their sweet innocent baby boy into depravity.”

            “Well, they have someone new to blame now in Brenda.”

            Four days later, high up in the sky on my way to Iowa, I felt happy and hopeful on multiple fronts. For one, I hadn’t been to my hometown in quite some time, and I longed to see my family. Then there was Eli, my brother from another mother. When I had hung up with him the other night, my eyes welled with tears of frustration. I felt like my witness did more harm than good. But then my phone rang ten minutes later. It was Eli with a quick word that changed my mood.

            “Hey, what’s up, E?”

            “Just wanted to say thanks for praying for me. I’m pretty nervous about meeting my son tomorrow… That sounds weird to say.”

            “Sounds weird to hear,” I replied. Then after a slight pause, I said something I should have said after our previous, more lengthy conversation only ten minutes earlier. “I love you, brother.”

            “Love you too, man, can’t wait to see you.”

            “Same here.”

            This time, my eyes welled with happy tears. I was going home. Little did I know then, after traveling the world multiple times, I was going to find the love of my life where I grew up!

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES – CHAPTER 3

Posted on by Johnathan Embers

HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 3

PENNY

THEREFORE SUBMIT TO GOD. RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU. DRAW NEAR TO GOD AND HE WILL DRAW NEAR TO YOU (James 4:7,8)

            My sister looked stunned as she stared at Eli. I’m sure I looked stunned as I stared at my sister.

            “Elijah?” Ariel had said with a baffled tone in her voice. “Eli Alderson?” Then she spoke a little more heatedly. “Or should I call you Eli Endor?”

            Eli didn’t speak, but he looked at me as if for direction. I felt my jaw clench in irritation that he looked more amused than concerned. “I can explain,” I tried.

            “Can you?” my normally even keeled sister said with a low angry voice. She folded her arms abruptly and I noticed her hand trembling. What had I done!

            “You see… I…. Well, you know… It’s like this.”

            “Oh, okay, I understand now,” my sister said sarcastically. Sarcasm from my meek, sweet, lovely sister was something you rarely saw. Her next words included something I never heard from her lips before. Profanity. “Just what in the (blank, blank) are you doing here, Eli?”

            As people began to look over their shoulders, the amusement left Eli’s face. But he was still amazingly calm. He even reminded me of an old time movie star as he stood.  With a charm that at the time I cynically wondered if it came from the devil,  he said, “Please Ariel, I mean to cause no trouble. If my presence here bothers you this much, I will start heading west as soon as I eat my supper.”

            Then something amazing happened. Ariel’s angry concerned demeanor transformed right before my eyes. Despite her long salt and pepper hair, and the beginnings of crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes, she morphed into that dreamy teenager that let this goodlooking charmer create my nephew Ethan in her uterus.

            Ariel sat next to me in the booth. Roxy, our waitress, approached with a side salad for me along with a glass of ice water. She also had a side salad for Eli, but his glass of ice was tainted with Coca Cola. Roxy smiled at my sister and asked, “What can I get you Ariel?”

            “Oh… Just a cup of tea, Roxy.” Then she looked at Eli with a neutral expression. “I’m sorry I overreacted, but what in fact are you doing here?”

            “Like he said, he’ll go back home,” I piped up. “I think that would be best.”

            Ariel turned a cool gaze onto me. “Obviously he is here because of you. So what did you tell him?”

            “I didn’t tell him anything… I wrote to him.”

            “Like I said,” Ariel spoke slowly, as if to a child. I guess I will always be her baby sister. “What did you tell him in the letter you wrote to him?”

            My tongue felt like it was stuck, so this compelled Eli to speak in my behalf. “She told me I had a son and granddaughter. I wanted to see if that was true. But as much as I want to see them, I don’t want in any way to make you uncomfortable or disrupt your life.”

            “How unselfish for a satanist,” my sister replied casually.

            “I’m not satanist, and I never was,” he responded. Then he frowned as is he doubted his own statement.

            “Is that right?” Ariel asked. “So what was all that music you created all about? The pentagrams, goat heads, and demons on your album covers? The sex, violence, and paganism you promoted?”

            “I wrote melodies and riffs. Izzy wrote the lyrics and created the image.”

            “Melodies?” Ariel said with a sarcastic snort. “So, you just wrote guitar parts? You didn’t wear gothic makeup and point like this as you played a guitar solo with one hand?”

            Ariel did what I believe was known as a satanic salute as she pointed with her index finger and pinky. It was an odd sight to see on my deeply religious sister.

            “I was playing a role,” Eli defended. “Eli Endor was like a character in a play. My legal name is still Alderson.”

            “You played a role alright. During a time of desperation in my life, my son found out you were his sperm donor. Then he tried to emulate that so called character you played.”

            Eli’s face froze, and he actually looked horror stricken for a moment. “Ariel, I’m truly sorry. Not only for your son, but for the role I played with God knows how many impressionable souls.”

            “God? Souls?” Ariel asked, not mockingly but with an inquisitively arched eyebrow.

            “I’ve thought a lot about my past life over the last year or two.”

            “You mean you’re regretful?”

            “Yeah,” he shrugged.

            “So your mouth said ‘yes,’ but your shrug said ‘no.’”

            Eli chuckled. “Let me put it this way. I’m regretful for the use of dark spiritual imagery. But on the other hand, I enjoyed not having a nine to five job.”

            “And also making a truck a load of money,” I piped up.

            Eli glanced at me for a second and then turned a thoughtful gaze back to Ariel. Just like as a kid, I felt jealousy over the way Elijah Alderson looked so adoringly at my sister rather than me. Nothing had changed. My pretty, feminine sister pulled her long braided ponytail over her shoulder, and her delicate hands with manicured fingernails began to gently stroke it.

            I looked at my hands with my nails cut short  to better minister to animals. Then I ran one of them through my short brown hair with blonde highlights. The short pixie style was due to convenience. My sister’s subtle makeup enhanced her pretty features. Would it do the same for me? Her eyes, which looked identical to mine, looked all the more adorable due to the long mascara enhanced lashes.

            Even the way we were dressed. Her tight turtleneck revealed an alluring, ample chest. My loose flannel covered my smaller, but perky chest. Her tight black leggings revealed the fact that she stayed fit. My jeans were worn and ripped, but wasn’t that hip? Even our footwear. My dirty, well-worn cowboy boots, compared with her cute pink running shoes. Forgive me, but I was a little jealous.

            “What did you mean by your son trying to emulate me?” Eli asked.

            “He took up the guitar, and grew his hair long,” Ariel replied. “Thankfully his sweet, mostly wholesome girlfriend steered him away from the occult garbage.”

            “Is he good?” Eli asked.

            “Yes, he’s a fine young man. He has made some mistakes, sure, but he’s a truly good guy.”

            “I meant is he good at guitar?” Eli asked.

            I couldn’t help my guffaw. Both of them looked at me, and Eli seemed to know the reason for my outburst. “I already assumed a son of Ariel’s was a good man. But my guitars have always been the love of my life.”

            “So your regrets,” Ariel asked cautiously. “Does that mean that you’re not in the band anymore?”

            “I don’t know how closely you followed ‘The Sons of Molech.’ But we are no longer a band. Two are dead, and Arlo Aldo became a devout Christian. You remember Arlo?”

            “How could I forget?” she asked with a slight edge to her voice. “He’s the one that talked you into going west to start a band, right after I gave in to, you know.”

            “Gave in to what?” Eli asked, and I marveled that he couldn’t read between the lines.

            “You know,” Ariel repeated, but this time she blushed. “The thing that created Ethan.”

            “Ariel,” he said breathlessly. “It was a two way street. I tried to resist you.”

            “I know,” she acknowledged, then redirecting the subject. “So Arlo became a Christian.”

            “He did. And he takes it seriously.”

            “And you?” Ariel asked with an arched eyebrow.

            “I don’t know what I am.”

            “Do you know Jesus?” Ariel asked.

            I felt my toes curl. Although I considered myself a Christian at the time, I wasn’t nearly as devout as my sister. I was considered the bold one of us two. Yet it was she that would talk to total strangers about Jesus. But it’s hard to talk to people about faith when your own walk has been crooked.

            Although Ariel had relationship problems, it was I who had a relationship infidelity. For I was the catalyst that ended a marriage, as well as a career. Although I confessed my sin and repented, it left me forever tainted.

            “I’ve never met Jesus,” Eli said cynically. Then with utter seriousness he added, “But I have met the devil.”

            “How did that work out for you?” I piped in.

            Eli smirked. “He’s a roaring lion, seeking to devour. But he sometimes gives you the world first to lure you into the lion’s den.”

            “Jesus is the only way out,” Ariel smiled warmly, taking his hand. He returned his own warm smile, and it caused the green eyed monster to pinch my cheek.

            Why did I feel this way? Eli was just a schoolgirl crush for me, and he fooled around with my sister, not me. Plus, as tainted as I still felt for committing adultery, Eli had probably been with hundreds of women, done tons of drugs, and no matter the degree of his intentions, he had made some sort of pact with the devil that clearly affected him. Did Arlo Aldo truly get victory in Christ after his own involvement with a prominent satanic band?

            “I believe you when you say that,” Eli replied to my sister. “Arlo’s been beating me over the head with a Bible. He has repeatedly told me Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Also that He stands at the door and knocks, and I just need to let Him in.”

            “Why haven’t you?” Ariel asked.

            “A side of me wants to. I guess the door’s stuck.”

            “Keep reading the Word and praying, and the door will get greased.”

            Eli gave her hand an extra squeeze, and Ariel put her other hand on top of their already joined hands. I thought about pulling them apart. I thought about reminding her that she’s married, although my sister would never cheat despite the fact that her and her husband’s intimate life was permanently altered due to his paralysis.

            “So Ethan came out of his rebellious faze?” Eli asked.

            “Not before he got his girlfriend pregnant when he was only seventeen.” Then she leaned in toward him and with a low conspiratorial tone. “Like father like son.”

            Now she was calling Ethan his father!

            “Oh!” my sister jerked excitedly and dug in her purse for a wallet. “I have pictures. Penny, would you be a dear and switch places with Eli?”

            The year was 1999, and there were no smart phones, so Ariel pulled out her oversized wallet and began to show him pictures of his son and granddaughter. Our food arrived and Eli became so absorbed in looking at the offspring he never knew he had, he let it get cold.

            I had somewhat lost my appetite. I didn’t understand why. I slowly nibbled my food as I watched my sister and her former hedonistic boyfriend huddle together in shared delight.

            “Man, he’s a goodlooking guy,” Eli enthused.

            I couldn’t help snorting. “That’s pretty narcistic since he clearly resembles you.”

            They both looked at me. Eli gave a quick casual glance, and then turned back to the pictures. Ariel frowned and shook her head. I was troubled. Somehow Eli had won her over her, and I didn’t know what to think. Should I be happy? Should I raise caution flags? Then what I both feared and longed for happened.

            “Do you want to meet them?” Ariel asked.

            “Sure, if you think you’re ready. If you think Ethan would be ready.”

            “Yes I do, I truly do. But how about tomorrow? I’ll talk to him tonight, so he can have time to get his head around it. I’m sure he’ll want to meet you, but don’t get your hopes up either.”

            “Great!” Eli declared. Then he looked at me with an air of satisfaction.

            What had I done! My night of intemperance with a bottle of wine and a pen had brought a devil worshiper into our midst. For I feared Eli Endor still held Eli Alderson captive.