It was a Sunday afternoon and we were well within autumn, past the time when the air is crisp and clean, when you want to close your eyes and just take it all in with a great rise and fall of the chest. This air bites back. It is the time after you turn your nose into the wind, and well into the time you burrow down behind your collars or scarves. It was autumn, but not the nice kind. The leaves had already fallen from from the trees and been raked up or mowed over. I was feeling restless and found myself walking through the streets of downtown. It was busy like the Christmas shopping season. Heavy laden people with shopping bags were greeting one another with wide eyes and hands in the air to signal "I am expecting a hug from you" or clasped in front of their faces as they had been sitting on some amazing secret and just waiting to spill the beans. How did these people all know each other, and so well? As I walked down the street I felt a dissonance with what I was experiencing and my ears began to ring. Something is not quite right. Two people embraced one another on the sidewalk just a few paces ahead of me, I was not yet close enough to hear the hug, but by the time I did approach they were talking about the thing they just had to tell the other. They were babbling incoherently. Facing one another, but not seeing one another. They both spoke at the same time, going through the motions, nodding and responding to a conversation they were involved with, but not the conversation with the person they were standing with. Just babbling. I looked around at the other mini reunions and most of the people were talking, which means that most weren't listening. I approached another such reunion and slowed as I passed to so I could hear their conversation without being obvious. Again, it was chaotic as both people were speaking and clearly not responding to each other. I did hear something about peace and a general excitement that peace was here.
I was feeling strange being here; and a bit outnumbered. It reminded me of the time my family was trapped in the pirates ride at Disneyland, the one where you sit in a boat and ride through the pirate world, seeing pirates at work in their natural habitat and singing their uniting work song, something about yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum. When we entered the ride and boarded our little boat it was such a delight to get out of the sun baked reality into this cool and humid other-world. It was fun and smiles until our boat jerked to a halt. Was this normal? Was this a very well-rehearsed part of the ride and nothing to worry about. This pause turned into minutes, the smiles melted into frowns. Yo-ho-ho and we were completely outnumbered by robots who were oblivious to our growing fear and confusion. Scared and on a boat ride buried within a very dark building. The robots slowly wound down and entered "sleep mode" but the song kept going and going and going. The song without the pirates is a song with no context; what do these words even mean anymore? It just turned into babble before our ears. We were eventually unloaded from our boats onto a pathway we had not initially seen, and lead through the bowels of the building to the light outside. Downtown felt a bit like that.
I walked through the city quickly pulling my hoodie up each time it was blown back by the wind and tried to avoid any eye contact. I saw the street that would take me out and walked with confidence into the world that was more familiar. When I raised my head and looked to the distant horizon toward the short buildings of north Minneapolis, I saw one large building in the distance that had not been there before, and it was on fire. Then the word "peace" that the stranger had spoken was confirmed as a lie.
For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
2 Thess. 2:11-12
I made my way quickly home. When I had reached the familiar streets of our neighborhood I began to run for my home, excited to tell Mike what had just happened. When I entered the our house, Mike was pacing the floors and praying. He had experienced only what could be described as a ripping, some great spiritual chasm had been created, something was happening that had never before been experienced by men. God had pulled himself back from the world, turning them over to the evil that was about to wage war.
Mike and I gathered what we could carry and started walking. We knew not where we were going, just knowing we would be on foot from now till the end. The streets were being barricaded and the national guard had been deployed to the densely populated urban areas to isolate people in their homes, because isolated peoples are powerless peoples. We walked and walked. On foot, we were no threat to anyone, after all, how far could we actually flee on foot. Most streets had not been closed off yet and those that were still allowed people on foot to pass. They obviously had not received protocols for pedestrians desiring to pass.
As we walked I tried calling my family to let them know the direction we would be travelling and perhaps we could meet up at some future location as I suspected our phones would not be an asset in just a few days or even hours. A man answered when I had called my mothers phone, we both knew he had not acquired this phone honestly, and he was not bothered to tell me he did not know anything about my mother or where she could be found. I had also tried reaching my brother and his family but there was no answer.
Despairing, we continued to walk. I knew that where we were going, we were going by faith and not by sight. When we had reached the area beyond the neighborhoods, we met up with others from our church, and only a small group that I recognized and a larger mass of people that I did not recognize. Nik, a recognized leader in our church told us upon our meeting that he was leading us to a "city of refuge". This sounded good to us. We walked.
When the people saw no buildings in the area and no signs of civilisation they became discouraged, their faith was being tested, and there was a great falling away when the people lost hope. Our group had been thinned and the sadness was great. Nik had taken responsibility for those that were lost, and our pastor confirmed to him that nothing could have been done, there was ALWAYS going to be a falling away. We just needed to go forward. And so we did.
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