Best Bible Emergency Numbers

...a dispatch from bewilderness

Once I was lying naked in a paper gown in a cold white cubicle. My brain left my body and didn’t come back. I spread everything that could be spread, bared everything that could be bared.

Then I proffered my broken brain for spreadsheets, for neuroscience, for doctors who never knew my name. Which brings me to my former life — when I was a freelance writer and a part time freelance ghost. That means I was absent from any story, outside of any place. Like — well, a ghost.

Speaking of ghosts, maybe every time you are naked under a paper gown summons the ghosts of all the other times you were naked under a paper gown. This brings me to the best Bible emergency numbers.

Upset? John 14

Depressed? Psalm 27

Others being less than kind? John 15

When you are lonely or fearful Psalm 23

When God seems far away Hebrews 139

When you need courage Joshua 1

When you are in danger Psalm 91

Once upon a time, I broke my brain, or rather, a truck broke my brain, or rather, a drunk driver broke my brain — so I landed in Brain Injury Group. We were parked at a table with a broken jaw, a broken spine, a broken mind, a broken life.

When your brain breaks, words don't make sense. It feels like a battle of wills -- your will against the will of the words that are locked in your mind, or what is left of your mind. You find what you can. You say what you can.

In my first life, the world seemed to arrange itself. Then it seemed to derange itself. Words stopped making sense, along with most everything else. Taking my words from me was like removing my toy chest, my tool kit, my anchor, my identity. Not to mention my income and our home.

Of course, some things don’t make sense even when your brain is fine. Like throwing a piece of cake at the Mona Lisa while screaming at people to protect the Earth.