Jackson Road

I WENT TO SLEEP that night with an even heavier mind, and more
troubled heart than I ever had before. I wasn’t sure about anything. I
prayed earnestly for forgiveness for allowing David to push me to such
anger. I asked God to help me know the truth and what, exactly, He
wanted me to do. I must have fallen asleep during prayer, because the
next thing I remember could only have been a dream. “The journey is
too great for thee.” I had heard those words the previous day, and they
came from Lyla’s lips. “I say the journey is too great. You must press on
to the end, for your travail is nigh, but the reward exceedingly good.” I
was in the old barn and the same grand lady I had seen before, showed
herself to me again. She told me to remember some important words
from I Kings chapter nineteen, verse seven, “…because the journey is too
great for thee.”

“Your journey will be great, and your travail even greater, but you
must choose the right path, even as I journeyed before you. You have a
great choice to make, but do not go the wrong way. You hold the third
secret.”

Awakened, and shaken by these words, I knew I had to write them
down quickly before my feeble mind forgot them. I knew that, either I
was not lucid, or this was really leading to something meaningful, yet
completely bewildering.

As soon as David left for work, I quickly found the number to Saint
Monroe’s Church. I had to talk to Father Willis. I wasn’t even sure why,
but I felt I would die if I didn’t. Maybe he would know who the grand
lady was, and what she wanted with me, or maybe I could get lucky and
just go back to a somewhat normal life, such as before. I phoned the
church and Father Willis answered. I told him only my name, and that
we had met once before, but that I had to speak with him immediately.
He bode me to come to the church and said that he had actually been
expecting my call. I found that to be a little alarming, but then again,
so was this entire drama unfolding, as my life. So, I took the paper on
which I had written the dream words from the grand lady, and left
quickly. I drove my car as if every answer to every question in life would
be awaiting me at that church. It never crossed my mind to doubt that
Father Willis could help answer them. The only thing I doubted was
my own sanity.

I opened the door to the church, then a prejudice thought hit my
poor mind. “What are you doing here? You are not Catholic, and your
church probably wouldn’t appreciate your seeking another religion’s help
before theirs. JUST STOP!” I thought. It doesn’t matter who helps who
here, we all serve the same God, and He knows all the answers. Who
ever said God wouldn’t require one religion to help a servant of another?
I suppose Satan had placed that thought in my head so I would turn
around and leave. But I rebuked him, and forward I went.

Meeting Father Willis again was such a needed blessing. His eyes
seemed to sparkle when he spoke, and his words reeked of knowledge
and wisdom. I told him of the dreams I’d had, and how the grand lady
had appeared to me. I began explaining that my Aunt Jualita, a very
Holy woman, had referred me for answers to “someone I had met only
once, but felt a strong connection with,” and that I believed it to be
him. I told him everything I could remember, and he read the words
I had written earlier that morning after another mysterious dream.
After being looked upon by David when I had the dreams, as insane,
I expected Father Willis to do the same. He didn’t. He did, however,
address me with an attentive, interested demeanor. It was almost as if
he knew every word I was about to say before I uttered them.

He looked at me with a wise old stare, and said, “I have known you
would come to me for a long time now. I have seen your face in my
dreams. I, like you, thought my sanity was to be questioned, but when
I saw the picture of you that David showed me, I knew I was not crazy,
and that God had indeed, lead me to you, for a reason. His reason, and
that I should not question, but serve Him as best I could.”

“You originated from a place where you never felt adequate, regardless
of what you did, didn’t you child?” Father Willis asked, then went
on to say, “ You have suff ered from affliction of body, and have even
considered taking your own life. But, you could not. For you know
that even as it was given to you, and is your life, it does not ultimately
belong to you.”

As I began to cry sorrowful, but joyous tears, I held my head up to
see Father Willis’ face, and he smiled at me. He said that I must consider
myself blessed to be chosen for such a great task. “Do not cry, not now,
there is no reason to cry, yet. You must pick up your courage from the
ground on which it now lays, and you must learn more. Persevere, for
the battle is nigh, and you must make the right choice in the end.”

“What do you mean, Father? Please tell me. What choice, what end?
And what third secret does the lady refer to in every dream?” I asked
longingly.