Pastor Rising: Part 3
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Jason rubbed his jaw. He was shaken, still, from recounting the terrifying episode he’d witnessed on his last long-distance run, and if he was honest with himself, he wasn’t so sure he should even be here talking to the pastor, to Tuck. Maybe a psychiatrist would be better. The pastor’s question, “How’s your faith, son?” hit him deeply. Did this mean that Tuck believed his story? Did he really see what he thought he saw that night? Or was this just something preachers do when they talk to you to make sure you’ve been converted? He hoped he wasn’t wasting his time.
He licked his lips, “Ah, I’ve always believed in God, and I go to church every Sun-”
“That’s not what I mean,” interrupted Tuck, “I mean, how is your FAITH? Do you talk to God and KNOW that He will respond? Do you KNOW it?”
Jason looked him in the eye. “I do.”
The Pastor repositioned himself and stared at Jason for a while. Finally he nodded and said, “Good. Your faith in these fights cannot be something you cling to only on Sundays, it has to be real. They know the difference.”
“What? Who knows the difference?” asked Jason, “What did I see that night, Tuck?”
Tuck gravely responded, “You saw a demon, Jason. No doubt that young lady had given herself over to it, maybe even summoned it… Oh, you don’t think that sort of thing happens in real life?”
Jason realized he’d raised his eyebrows in surprise. He shrugged.
Tuck continued, “It happens in the mind, mostly, they attack and influence our thoughts by planting lies and confusion. They usually only do this if there is some scheme they’re up to, some larger goal.”
He stopped here and glanced away, then his gray eyes snapped back to Jason’s blue ones. “I guess what I’m saying is pretty hard to believe, but, ever notice how, when something big is going on politically, that there’s suddenly a hate crime that floods the news? Or a mass shooting? Such hatred exists when people open their minds to these dark creatures. Even just a little, and all kinds of evil pours out. Of course, people are responsible for their own decisions, but these things have powerful influence, and vile intentions on a global scale.”
It occurred to Jason that Tuck may be insane. After all, Jason had read that Tuck’s attorney had begged him to plead insanity to lighten his sentence, and no doubt everyone thought Tuck’s story was crazy. While Jason did believe in God and he believed the words of the Bible, he wasn’t exactly convinced that demons went around like shadows exploding people.
He decided to ask, “Why were you in the woods that night, Pastor?”
Tuck didn’t seem stunned, but his face remained stony for a while. Then he said, “I had only been a minister for about 5 years. I was young, still inexperienced even though I thought I knew everything. The Bible College I graduated from prepared me for music ministry, how to relate to teenagers, how to put jokes in my sermons so that people didn’t get bored. They didn’t prepare us to ground people in the Word, to stand against popular opinion, to teach, edify and rebuke when necessary, and God knows, they didn’t prepare me to fight demons!”
Jason eyed him, still wondering if he was insane.
Tuck continued, “And what I DID learn led me to believe that I should be getting paid a large salary, so I only applied to churches with a lot of members. This landed me happily at Sander’s Grove Christian Church, where I met…” he swallowed hard, “where I met Cindy, my wife.”
“Cindy led me into a deeper relationship with my Creator, helped me strengthen my faith. We started a lot of small group studies, because, well, our church was so large that we couldn’t know all of them.
Cindy heard from one of her church friends that a particular small group, they called themselves, “The Light Group,” had taken to meeting in the woods outside the city. At first, this woman told Cindy, the group would bring their Bibles and do a short devotion, eat some food, enjoy the outdoors. But there was one member of the group, a guy with long, stringy black hair, whom I had seen before, but didn’t know. This guy started asking strange questions that made this woman uncomfortable. The other members of the group, she said, told her not to say anything about it, that she should accept him and hope he came around. Well, apparently, he had begun bringing drugs with him to the meetings, and tarot cards. He convinced other members of the group-they’re all pretty new to the church, and young- to join him. Cindy’s friend was seriously concerned at this point, and tried to explain that these things were not for Christians. She says she did it in a loving way, but the people from The Light Group asked her not to come back.”
Jason interjected, “Wow!”
Tuck stared at the table and continued, “Cindy and I tried contacting members of the group individually, but they weren’t taking our calls or responding to emails. We decided to accompany Cindy’s friend out to the woods that night. When we got there, we..” He swallowed and cleared his throat, “We followed a path that lead back to a clearing with some picnic tables, and we saw them. It was horrible, the worst debauchery I’ve ever seen, it was-”
He glanced up at Jason and said, “I won’t go into gritty details, but it was horrible. These were supposed to be members of our church! There was a stinking smoke hanging in the air, I’m sure they were all drunk and high along with everything else. Cindy’s friend ran away, thank God, but Cindy and I, we, we began praying aloud and we tried to talk to them. I became angry and started shouting, and most of them ran away. The guy with stringy black hair, the guy I didn’t know, confronted us, though, and that’s when the shadows came.”
The Pastor stopped talking here, his face stony and grave. He figured Jason either believed him or not, and their time was almost up.
Jason looked at the man in front of him. He didn’t SEEM crazy. The pot-bellied guard began his saunter toward the door, and he knew Tuck would have to go.
“Uh, thank you for talking with me. What, what should I do?”
Tuck said, “I don’t know how to answer that. After that night, I’ve never seen those shrieking monsters again, I suppose I am no threat to them here. Maybe you’ll never see anything like that again, either.”
The guard waved and said, “Alright, time’s up. Let’s go.”
Tuck stood and said, “Jason, you’re not crazy. And neither am I.”
“Let’s go, Tuck,” called the guard, and Tuck took a step toward the door he’d entered through, then said over his shoulder, “Keep the faith, son.”
Jason nodded in reply and rose to leave. He passed back through the way he came in, and stopped back by the window to sign out next to where he’d signed in. The guard behind the glass said, “Thank you, sir. Have a nice day.”
Jason barely glanced up to say, “You, too,” before heading on to the parking lot. The guard smiled oddly as he watched him go, and pushed back long, stringy black hair.
