Two Paths

(Continued from My Weapon of Choice)

I played with the sword in mock combat for awhile feeling its energy and marveling over its beauty. I knew I had something powerful, but I hardly knew how to use it. After awhile I grew somewhat bored however with play and decided to walk further north.. I had no scabbard for the sword so I had to carry it by the handle, blade down, and it was just heavy enough that I had to transfer it from one hand to the other periodically as I walked.

Before long I came to a dip in the terrain that slopped downward away from the rim of the abyss. I reasoned it must be the upper reaches of a gully. Various bushes and brush were around this slight basin and I saw that a path, faintly warn, let down along one side. I hadn’t been following any kind of trail since I neared the edge of the abyss, so this was peculiar in a way. I figured it must be a path that had led some few unknown to me from the world to this same place where I had come.

With the Sword of Joy in my hand, I thought I must have purpose for having been honored in the gift of it. I thought of no better reason to have it then to take it back into the world to use on behalf of those close to me and for whom I had prayed earlier. I knew they couldn’t get where I was, at least that many of them couldn’t comprehend what I knew as reality, so I thought the reason for my having received it must be for help in protecting the faith of others.

I started down the path with that kind of optimism. It wasn’t long before I entered sparse timber. The trail at that point had more definition which meant to me that it had been frequented more often by human beings, as I was nearing the world of man once again. So I thought little of it and just kind of accepted the phenomenon as natural. About then, I saw two men approaching from below. They had seen me and were coming up to meet me. They waved and I waved back.

“Hello there,” the man in front called out.”

I acknowledged him. They were smiling and of course, so was I. I was eager to show my sword and to talk about what I had seen on the rim. When they came up to me, the man who had called out stood directly in front of me and appeared greatly interested in the sword. The other man, taller, stood off to the side on my right. He too seemed very friendly and I saw them look at each other as if they were communicating. I just figured they were happy to see me and were eager to learn about where I had been and what the sword meant.

As I explained to them how the sword had been given to me by the angel and what I had seen, the man in front of me asked if he could hold it. I saw no reason why not, so I let him take it by the handle. Just at that point, the other man hit me on the side of the head and I staggered from the blow. Then the man in front of me, holding the sword in his left hand, laid a fist into my gut knocking the wind out of me. I could not catch my breath and I fell to me knees. Then the other man hit me again on the back of the neck and I fell unconscious on the trail.

Sometime later I awoke to pain in my neck and ribs. I gasped for air at first, but then caught enough to sit up. I put my hand on the side of my head where the first blow had levied and looked around. I did not see the men anywhere. They were gone and they had taken the sword.

“No!” I cried out. “No. Lord, how can this be?” I couldn’t imagine that anyone would want to steal that from me, but they obviously had. I was lucky to be alive. “Oh, Lord, I’m so sorry. I have lost it already.” I got to my feet to gain my bearings. At first I was quite distraught. I tried to bring on the attitude of joy, but frankly, I could not. They had taken the most dear thing to me. I felt both guilt and remorse over its loss.

“Lord, you trusted me with it.” I stumbled around not knowing which way to go. My head hurt, my gut was sore and my neck was taught with strain. I massaged my neck with my right hand and decided to walk back toward the rim. Why would I have ever wanted to go back into the world? I wondered. I could see and understand that the knowledge I had gained was not explainable to people in the world, that it could not be understood by most. “But God, I only wanted to help in the fight,” I moaned. No one was there to hear my complaint.

Eventually, I worked my way back up the draw to the edge of the rim. I looked across the abyss to see if I could see anything, but I could not. It was just a huge abyss with green on the other side and I was just a man standing on the edge of it, perplexed and confused.

I sat down in a lotus position (because I saw nothing on which to sit) and put my hands to my eyes. I felt like crying, but could not. I felt heavy guilt and regret. I felt despair. Then I heard the mocking. It was a quiet kind of laughter coming from somewhere near. I opened my eyes, cocked my head; but I could not see anyone. Then I realized that it must be coming from dark spirits, for it certainly taunted me. It wanted to feed the heaviness in my soul with more heaviness.

I stood up at once. “Well, I can’t see you; but I know who you are,” I cried loudly. “Your names are Guilt, Failure, and Despair and you are in the company of Regret. Yes, I am just a man but I say you have no authority over me. You cannot dissuade me from the truth. You cannot take my faith from me. You cannot!” I raised my fist. “If I could see you, I’d....”

Then they appeared. Three dark angels stood in front of me and a fourth back a little behind them. I stood my ground. They were not talking, just looking at me. They were ugly, quite frankly, and I could smell them as unclean. All four were no larger than I was. They had no light about them but they were winged. All four had scares from battle and faces of inner torment. They were ungodly. Had I been on less treacherous ground, I might have been repulsed by their appearance, but I knew I had to be strong.

“By authority of the One Whose Victory was written from before the beginning of time,” I command you to leave.

They looked at each other. The one nearest me, looked back at me and a stinking smile crossed his lips. They did not move. “I am not yours and I never will be. Depart.” As difficult as it was I knew I had to turn away from them, so I did. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in anticipation of preeminent attack.

Nonetheless, I started to walk away with my head held high when my foot kicked a stone. I looked down for my footing and there saw the sword lying on the ground. Realizing it was the same sword I had lost, and instantly being aware that I could lose it again, I grabbed it off the ground a swung it around to greet my foes all in one instant. And lucky I did for they were coming at me as one. My sword cut right through two of them, beheading one and severing the arm of another. The other two seeing their comrade fall, stopped. The severed head, however this was possible I don’t know, rolled on the ground, gaining momentum until it went over the edge of the abyss.

At that point the three others who had taunted me, fled into the draw from which I had come.

I stood dazed. The forearm of the second attacker lay bleeding on the soil at my feet. I looked at the blade of the Sword of Joy, yet nothing was on it. No blood, nothing. But the fine blade glittered and shown brightly in the morning sun.

Then I realized that there had been no sunlight at all in the draw along the trail I had taken to go back into the world. It had been daylight, but no direct sun. I lowered the sword letting its tip touch the soil for it was heavy to hold up and I was weary from all that had transpired.

“How is this? How can all this be?” I asked. But no one was there to answer. My mind raced over everything. I saw way back into the long trek I over which I had persevered to get to the rim. And I realized that I could not go back into the world again, not in the way a man does. If I were going to help anyone, I had first to learn how to protect this treasure I had been given. If it was to protect my faith, what would protect it?

The first men I had encountered had tried to steal it from me and had I not been somehow blessed, they would have succeeded. “Oh God,” I cried out, lowering my head. I closed my eyes to pray, “Oh Father, help me understand. You are over there and I am here. You have given this to me and the world wants to steal it form me. I don’t know how to protect myself. Teach me. I don’t know how to wield this sword. Teach me. I don’t even know when I should...teach me. Lord God, I ask you, please...teach me.”

When I opened my eyes, I saw there at my feet the faint outline of a pathway moving north along the rim. I took it. I followed as best I could the faint markings in the dusty soil along the edge of the abyss, transferring the sword periodically from hand to hand. Joy had returned into my breast. The pains went away. My stride increased in length. Sureness and courage filled my being. This time I was on the right track and I knew it.

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