There Must Be Something More

107 | The Real God

Author's Note: In case you're wondering why the new chapter is Chapter 107, well, I rewrote the moment Alex speaks in front of the crowd to share her testimony. The Lord told me He had something better in mind. And so, here it is ;)

All eyes were trained on Alex as she stood at the edge of her stage. If you looked close enough, you could see her hands shaking as they held the mic.

Meredith's eyes boggled and she grinned. I smiled too.

"I-I know, most of you here already know me," Alex said. She scanned her eyes sheepishly to the crowd.

"But I'm here to offer a different kind of speech," she continued. "One that I never thought I'd say in my entire life."

Mark turned back around and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He glared at his former best friend.

"So, I bet most of you are wondering why in the world I'm here..." she said, chuckling nervously, and tapping her foot impatiently on the mahogany wood stage.

"And I'm going to tell you why," she added.

"So, I didn't really grow up in Clarkdale, Arizona, although most people think that I am, since most of my life has been spent here. My parents and I, we moved here when I was eight years old. We originally came from Louisville, Kentucky. I'm a proud Kentuckian. My mom and dad are botanists in the University of Louisville. Actually, I don't live with my parents here. My brother and I live by ourselves, but he's already twenty-eight and is a real estate broker, so he's able to take care of me.

"So, growing up in Louisville with parents who practically live and breathe science is kind of tough. They're very strict about my grades and how I dress and act. They don't want me hanging out with anybody but only to those who loved science as they did.

"And they have a strict rule in the house: Seeing is believing. One time somebody shared the gospel to me and I told Mom about it. And she told me, 'Honey, God's not real. He's just a figment of somebody's imagination.'"

"'But the little girl from my class says she saw God for herself. He visited her during her prayer time,' I said as a seven year old girl.

"My mom laughed, 'That's so silly, Alex! That is what I call comedy gold.'"

Alex smiled wistfully, her eyes downcast. "And we never spoke about God again. It was already assumed that God didn't exist just because they couldn't see Him. And that's how I lived my life. And then my mom and dad got more busy when my brother and I moved to Clarkdale. I wanted to call all the time, you know, FaceTime. But they always tell me they're busy. Even on my birthdays they're busy. I was just eight and my brother twenty when we moved here. We had to stay at our aunt and uncle's house until my brother got the job as a real estate broker two years ago. We eventually moved out.

"My brother is also an atheist. Though he didn't share the love of science our parents and I had, he believed the same as we did. And we were always taught that 'things without proper evidence only means one thing--it isn't true.' And we did believe them. We grew up believing there was no accurate historical data and scientific evidence for Jesus. That's why I was so curious when this so-called Baseball Star Charlie Borlock announced he was going to do a lecture series about Biblical evidence. To me, 'Bible' and 'evidence' shouldn't be put together in a sentence. Because I believed there was no scientific evidence for Jesus.

"But an amazing thing happened," Alex chuckled. "It's funny. The night before Charlie's lecture about Jesus' resurrection, I prayed."

Mark scrunched his eyebrows together, obviously couldn't take in the new information.