Monday, May 13, 2024

Simply Eric: Forming My First Doubts About The Bible (Part 10)

    ***The following is a fictional account of a teenager who has Bipolar Disorder and Conduct Disorder. Some content may be triggering. Reader discretion advised***




It is finally Friday and today is off to a wonderful start. This morning, I was determined to beat the night shift staff member at his own game. That means I was planning on cleaning the bathroom so well that he would have to give positive points. I literally looked for every spot he could have marked off and scrubbed and scrubbed until everything was spotless. I have never cleaned a bathroom so well in my entire life. As it turns out, when I finally went to get him to check my chore, he even agreed that it met his standards. Instead of taking away points, he gave me a plus 250 points! Pretty much that means my day is complete. I couldn't possibly earn any more points for the rest of the day. I can basically rest easy and not worry about impressing these staff members. It also means that I am well on my way to achieving Level 2. They will decide that by next week's meeting on Wednesday. For now, I am just going to enjoy my victory. 

After chore time, we all line up in front of the door, count off our numbers and line expectations, and then head outside to go to the cafeteria for Breakfast. My mood is in such high spirits that absolutely nothing can bring me down. Once we are at the cafeteria, we get in line to get our food. For breakfast today we are having the same instant scrambled eggs, hard bacon, instant oatmeal, and an apple. I am beginning to think the cooks here do not know how to cook anything else. I secretly hand the girl who is helping them my letter and then go and sit down at a table. Travis decided to join me. I really wish this loser would leave me alone, but I am much too polite to say anything. I do not want to hurt the poor guy's feelings. He obviously thinks I am his only friend in this place and who doesn't need friends when they are in a place like this? He probably thinks I will protect him from his bullies, but he is in for a rude awakening because I am not planning on getting into any more fights from here on out. I do not want to do anything to jeopardize my discharge from this place. 

"So, what do you like to do for fun besides sports?" Travis asks me and immediately I want to tell him that I enjoy beating up twerps like him. I just would like to scare him away from me, but I decided not to say that. 

"Um," I say in between bites of my scrambled eggs "I like listening to music--" 

"What kind of music do you enjoy?" He cuts me off right away and this does annoy me quite a bit. How is he going to ask me something and then cut me off midsentence? Obviously, he is not home-trained. I decided to just let it go, however, and I told him I mainly listen to rap and hip hop. He seems to get excited by this because he tells me that he is into rap and hip hop too. I highly doubt it. He is just trying to relate to me. 

"Have you ever heard of Christian rap?" He asks me and tell him I have not. To be honest, the whole idea of "Christian rap" seems rather corny to me. Why is it that Christians are always trying to make their own versions of something that is already a thing? He goes to tell me about some guy named Shai Linne, but I couldn't care less about this topic. After I finish eating, I stand up to go put my tray away. Then, we all get in line, count off our numbers and expectations, and then we transition to the Medical building. Once we are in there, Travis continues talking to me about Shai Linne and this song of his called "Lyrical Theology". I tell him honestly that I am not interested and he seems hurt by this. I do not really care, however. He needs to go bother someone else about his "Christian Rap". After the kids take their medication, we all line up and count off our numbers and expectations, and then we head to the School building. 

The first class we went to was Mrs. White's English class and as always I thoroughly enjoyed her class. Even if I already knew everything she was teaching, it still was a joy listening to her. I think she enjoys having me as a student because she always appoints me to help the other students who are struggling. The next class is Social Studies with Mr. Jesse, and as always he is an a-hole. Today, he decided to make me look stupid by asking me a question concerning the Civil Rights movement that he knew I did not know nor even cared to know. He is lucky we are not on the outs because I would have seriously humiliated him. The next class is Science with Mr. Green, and as always he shares with us an episode of MythBusters. This episode is actually quite interesting to me because it is about Noah's Ark from the Bible. It piques my interest because of my latest interest in even reading the Bible. However, this episode is very troubling. They are talking about how rain can't fall for 40 days and 40 nights and flood the entire world. They talk about how even if it were true, there is no possible way that some ignorant goatherders would be able to put together a solid wooden boat of the size that the Bible says it is. Furthermore, they say a boat that size that is made of solid wood would collapse in a great worldwide flood. I must admit that all this seems pretty damning evidence against the Bible. I never considered the fact that the Bible is so unscientific, but then again, what should I expect from ignorant goatherders? This new revelation bothers me because if I cannot trust the Bible on something so crucial, then how could I trust the Bible at all? After that class, we go to Mrs. Thompson's Math class, but I cannot pay any attention to what she is saying because I just keep on thinking of what we learned from MythBusters in Science class. After that class is over, we all line up, count off our numbers and expectations, and begin transitioning back to the unit. 

Once we are in the unit, I immediately go to my room to grab my Bible. I do not want to sit in the therapy group because I need to do something more important. Mr. Tony comes to my room and asks me if I care to join the group and I curse him out and tell him to leave me alone. He does as I tell him and I search frantically for the chapter on Noah's ark. I find it in the book of Genesis and it literally says that Noah and his sons built a large wooden boat to save themselves from a worldwide flood! I am blown away by this to be honest because this pretty much blows the credibility of the Bible to smithereens. How could some ancient goatherders possibly know how to build a boat that size for all the animals in the world? Furthermore, how could they possibly make the boat sturdy enough to not break when the world is supposedly flooded? Also, where is the evidence of this so-called flood? I have a million questions like these running through my mind right now. I decided that I would ask Mr. Skyler at next Wednesday's Bible Study because he seems pretty knowledgeable and trustworthy. However, for now, I will just drop the issue. 

I walk out of my room and I see Enrique' bullying Travis for his snack. I almost think to myself that I should let it go because Travis needs to learn to stand up for himself. But, something in me tells me that what Enrique is doing is not right and that I should stand up to him on Travis' behalf. After all, Travis has been nothing but nice to me. I decided to confront Enrique' against my better judgment. 

"Yo, why don't you pick on me like that, chump?" I yell at Enrique' and he looks at me with an angry stare. I walk up to him before he can say anything and I punch him directly in his fat mouth. He tries to push me away, but then I punch him in his gut and he falls to the ground by my feet. Mr. Andy comes out and grabs me from behind and slams me to the ground and holds me in place until I am calm enough to be let up. Enrique' walks away with a busted lip and Mr. Andy takes off negative 250 points from my record. I guess my day has officially been ruined all because I decided to play Superman. I will never make that mistake again. Travis is on his own from now on. He comes up to me to say thank you, but I tell him to get away from me before I beat him up. I see the fear in his eyes and I just walk away and go to my room. I do not want to deal with anyone for the rest of the night. 

***To Find Out The Rest Of Eric's Story, Purchase The Book Here Simply Eric: Life of A Teenage Boy With Bipolar and Conduct Disorders

-David Lee Chu Sarchet?
Christian Mental Health Advocate 

Check out the Christ-Centered Mental Health Ministry website








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