My great grandma was always obsessed with church.
She’d do anything for that place.
Throughout my childhood, she’d drag my great grandpops along and they’d do bake sales, funfairs, and fetes. They’d attend church every Sunday without fail and they’d say their prayers, eat their vitamins and be good Christian people.
They did their best to follow the rules of God and be the best kind of people they could be. My great grandma wanted me to join her every Sunday. She and my parents would argue about it regularly.
She thought that I needed religion to be a good person.
And she thought my parents were withholding the love of her Lord from me by never taking me to church.
So, to appease her, they let me go one Sunday.
I didn’t see what all the fuss was about, but I knew it was important to my great grandma, so I went.
Every Sunday I went.
Until that fateful day my great grandpops passed away.
Something changed in my great grandma on that day.
This woman loved her God unconditionally. She served him every single day of her life. She awoke with him in the heart, mind and soul – and she endeavoured to make every single day worthy of his love and protection.
As did my great Grandpops.
Only, a brief illness took his life in a heartbeat. In what felt like a click of her Lord’s fingers, he had taken the only other love of her life. She couldn’t understand why. She had done everything in her power to appease her Lord and her payback, for all those years of unconditional love and support, was to let the love of her life be taken from her.
She never went to church again.
In fact, when my great grandpops died, it was like she lost herself.
You see Gable, I’ve seen what loving the Lord can do to a person. I can see what all that time, effort, passion and prayer can get you. It doesn’t stop you being like everyone else. There’s no difference between those of you who love God and those of us who don’t.
There’s no punishment for forgetting he ever existed.
Just like there’s no reward for knowing that he did and loving him for it.
Because The Lord never gave a darn either way. He didn’t, Cael.
And here you are on a mission to try and resurrect him. Here you are on a mission to try and bring him back, after everything he’s let happen over years of abuse and torment. Humanity has suffered, man. It’s suffered and he’s sat idly by and watched it like we were his favourite soap.
If my great grandma taught me anything…
It’s that the only people you should love on his Earth are those you hold close – your family, your friends and more importantly, yourself.
Loving God is only gonna hurt you.
It’s only gonna let you down.
And bringing him back doesn’t change that.
I’ve seen it myself.