A Heart Like God

It is Saturday morning, at 3:30 a.m., and I am just leaving a downtown Richmond, Virginia night club. I am on my way home to my Chesterfield County bachelor pad in my pearl white, ES250 Lexus, clean as the board of health. I had done this so many times before. However, to my surprise, I did not know that this night would change my life forever. I had no clue that this night would be the last time I would see or drive that car ever again!

Let’s rewind the tape to several hours prior to my trip down to Shockoe Slip (Richmond’s club district). I first visited my local grocery store to pick up the alcohol of my choice, and then I made a quick dash over to my resident pharmaceutical rep, (just in case you missed it, I was referring to my local drug dealer’s house). Now I have partaken in destroying my body and my mind. I am psyched and hyped and ready to take on the streets of Richmond by storm, or at least that is what I thought. So I started visiting some local clubs, and ended up in one until about 3:15 a.m.

By this time I had ordered a few more drinks, had a few more laughs, and had a few more tokes, if you know what I mean. After this, I started to leave the club, gave some brothers I knew a high five, and jetted out to my car. Now by this time, I was extremely inebriated and it was hard for me to stand up completely, or form complete sentences. Yet, the strong voice of the alcohol and drugs told me I could make it home. Approximately 2 miles down the road where the 13th Street bridge eventually turned into Hull Street Road, I dozed off and when I came to, I had taken my pearl white ES250 Lexus and the guard rail down into a reservoir of 5 feet of water. At this time, my car, and I, were upside down with water seeping into the car. Realizing that I could not swim, I began to think rationally and recognize that my life was nearing the very end. Now picture this, I was upside down in about 5 feet of water. I attempted to open the driver’s side door, but the water pressure would not allow the door to open. It was panic time and I did not want to die, but I was intelligent enough to recognize the inevitable when it was presented to me. I looked at my car windows and they were all intact and in the closed position. So what do you think I did? I gave up!  

 CHAPTER XI

Faith, Family,Work …Oh MY!

Faith, Family, Work … Oh My is a reality that all of us go through at some point in our lives. If you have not experienced it yet, I will tell you like the senior saints use to say, “Keep living!”

You will hit a point in your life as a Christian or non-Christian that will make you wonder is it all worth it! Did I enlist or pre-register or even go to college for all of this? What about me? When did my life become so consumed with everything with the exception of me? How did my life slip through my hands without me ever realizing it? When will I regain my identity or am I going to live the rest of my life being Amber’s mom or Charles’s wife or my boss’ secretary?

I used to have an individual name, a personality along with an identity, now I am known by a pseudonym or an alias or title. I have recently discovered that my “What about me?” is really a what about them or what about that?

I do not even worry in the first person anymore. Is there any help or aid for my Faith, Family, Work … Oh My? That leads us to the subtitle of this chapter … you guessed it, “What about Me?”

What about Me?

There is tremendous responsibility in rearing children, having a healthy marriage, working outside of the home, and serving in ministry, that can lead someone to ask the question, “What about Me?”

The question, “What about me?” is not a self-centered, self-absorbed,

or self-consumed inquisition, but a heartfelt dose of reality that the very core of your existence may have been transferred to the hands of someone else.

Below you will find some practical ways to regain and restore the YOU in YOU……