He Works the Night Shift

He Works the Nightshift

 

This is a true story. It is also detailed, violent, and involves blood. You have been warned.

This story is so fresh that my face is still painful, my nose is incredibly tender, and my forehead is marked from the impact.

It all began so innocently, I was eating chips and salsa and watching the news when the pointy end of a rogue tortilla chip slid between the back of a tooth and the gum line. I could feel the damage right then, and it was not insubstantial, I sould taste the blood flowing liberally over my tongue.

Lightheadedness flooded through me, but I didn’t go down, I tested the injured area with my tongue that by itself kept me around for at least a little while longer. I opened a water bottle on my table and drank a few swallows to re-establish my solid grasp on conciousness.

Whatever happened I felt like I had to stay cognizant and alert at least until my gums had stopped bleeding. Reaching down I turned off the space heater knowing that the cold was preferable to me, as the taste of blood and the heat always conspired to put me out for the count. No sooner had I done so then another wave of lightheadedness rolled through my system and I knew I had to get into the bedroom and onto the bed.

Right now I needed to lie down, so I got up carefully knowing that things were going to be touch and go. As I walked down the very short hall to the bedroom door I realized to my dismay that I had put the wall heater on to heat up the bedroom, I was about to enter a wall of heat., a room designed to make me swoon.

When I pushed the door open, I was staggered by the heat, and I fell sideways against one of the Adobe walls of my house. My vision faltered alarmingly, my practical side was saying you’ve got to turn off the light it had already figured out what my physical side was about to show me, I was going down but darn it I was going to save some money on my hosts electric bill.

Using the wall to support myself I reached for the twist switch on the light, at the same time my lights finally and hurriedly went out.

***

My eyes opened to darkness and a weird droning sound that I couldn’t quite place. It was pitch dark and my head was throbbing, the whole room looked different from…wherever I had landed. I tasted the blood and the faint light was nearly snuffed again. I was in no state to get up and walk, my shoulder, neck, and side were each telling my they hurt more than the other, my nose was winning with my forehead not far behind. My nose was only winning because I could feel the blood slowly making its way out of my right nostril.

Sorry to be so disgusting but I am a very detail oriented person when it comes to projects especially writing projects, wait I warned you up top didn’t I.

Taking a couple of deep breaths I forced myself to remain alert and not black out…faint all over again. I was at the foot of the standing tall lamp behind the chair that I record my videos in, but the whole setup had been moved.

Slowly I got on my hands and knees, stabilized myself and very slowly made my way towards the wall heater focusing on the small red light. If I could get the thing off I would probably not loose conciousness again. Dizziness swept over me again and I went down, dragging myself on my belly now right up to that red light. My gosh was I light headed, yet I still managed to flip the two switches, and the drone of the heater was replaced by silence.

Choosing to forego the bed at least for now I simply rolled onto my back and looked up to the ceiling, I touched my finger to the base of my nose and it came away bloody. High on my right temple it felt like my brain was going to bulge out of my forehead, it was just throbbing and throbbing.

It took me about five minutes to undo my laces and get my running shoes off, after which I just lay there. I was afraid, I was frightened of what I would find when I looked in the mirror when I finally got there. This fear was blasting adrenaline through my system, which in turn was telling me if you don’t get me in check…you’re going to faint again.

Actually my knower must’ve told me that, so that was a relief my knower was functioning properly. Sure enough after a few more calming breaths, and calm thought, I felt a peace come over me a deep calm that I often experience but which is unfortunately not as often noticed anymore.

It’s called in the Bible the “peace that passeth understanding”, a peace beyond measure and comprehension. And this peace is a gift of God through the Holy Spirit to all who believe and receive the Spirit’s indwelling.

How could I have forgotten, God is in me through the person of the Holy Spirit. He’s not just out there guiding me walking alongside me, He’s within me and He can’t leak out through a bloody nose.

“Lord God I know you’re here-.”

I don’t remember the content of my prayer but I knew that He was most certainly there with me. And as I prayed that peace overflowed in me, He overwhelmed me with an outpouring of His love and peace. My pacing and racing heart was slowed and my fear was destroyed. I was reminded that the chiold of God is not to have a spirit of fear but of assurance, and assurance in every single moment of life of life that God is soverign and He is not only my creator but my Father as well.

***

I looked at my face in the mirror and it was not nearly as bad as the Devil’s spirit of fear had made it out to be. Was there dried blood under my nose, yes there was, but it was not dripping like a faucet or rushing like a river it had in fact stopped bleeding. There were a couple of other marks on my nose and a doozy of a mark high on my right temple. I hurt like the dickens, but unlike what the spirit of fear had told me, I was not even close to keeling over in death.

I got changed and went to sleep, I would take stock of the damage when I woke up, and hopefully I would be hurting less.

***

When you’re 6’4” you have a long distance to fall even when you start off on the ground, and as I look now at what happened last night I realize just how much speed I generated when I fainted away.

This is what happened the best I can reconstruct things:

1: I did manage to turn off the light.
2:As I fell my nose hit the switch where it joins the light pole and was damaged enough to bleed.
3: At the base of the light my upper right temple slammed into the metal with enough force to leave a sizeable dent, I suspect though I am not certain yet that this is when I seemingly split my eyebrow. (I haven’t cleaned up entirely in the shower yet but my eyebrow feels very stiff).

Look at that dent!

4: This impact not only broke the pole of the light (Sorry hosts Larry and Donna Lynn) as in knocked it off center I believe but it pushed the chair table and light two feet from their original start position.

That’s a lot of momentum and force folks and I know that believe me, but God is the one who holds everything together, and He wasn’t about to let me go. He needs me here for longer so that through me He can reach others who don’t have this peace that passeth understanding, who don’t have just the promise someone that they can count on to be on duty at all times, including the night shift, but that they can have a loving one on one relationship with God the creator of everything, and the Father of those who let Him in.

You too can have the peace I speak of, you too can have a anytime relationship with God, He yearns for you to come to Him, He years to Love you. He wants nothing else than to give you the gift of the Holy Spirit, and thorugh the Indwelling of the Spirit to give you rebirth, and the promise of life eternal, living and reigning with God forever.

Don’t be left in the dark, don’t be fooled by the spirit of fear that the Devil weaves around you like the master liar he is.

Come to the light, come to the cross of Christ where the God Man died for you. Give him all that makes you broken, release your sins to Him, and acknowledge that He is the only way you can be saved.

Once you have done this things won’t always be perfect as this story points out, but God will always be loving on you, be watching for you and be available to you. There’s nothing on this planet so broken that God cannot fix it, absolutely nothing, come to Him and be healed. Come to Him and be saved.

God is God of all, and the night shift is when I found Him, you can find Him there too.

In Christ,

Ross