I need to make a confession.  Late last year, I surrendered to the pressure of my classmates and watched the Netflix Sci-Fi series Stranger Things.  It is a Stephen King’ish scenario set in the 80’s.  In season one, a young boy disappears, and his friends soon discover that he has been taken to the “upside down.”  The “upside down” is a parallel dimension to our world; it is a dimension that is a dark reflection of our world filled with monsters and despair.  Spoiler Alert!  The young boy does get rescued and returned to the world as we know it because of the efforts of his family and friends.  However, there were still things that haunted him from the “upside down.”

I could spend some time presenting the spiritual and religious allegories of the show, but I will save that for another time. Several theologians have written about it already.  I am more interested in the “upside down” because I found myself trapped in a place very much like it.   My world had become dark, filled with hopelessness, and haunted by monsters that I didn’t want to go on.  In late February, 31 one years ago, I felt there was no way out.  I decided to end my life. The sermon in church today reminded me of this time in my life.

Much like the young boy in Stranger Things, I would be rescued.  My rescue came from strangers at first, not family and friends. I had driven them all away.  I was really alone, or so I thought.  I knew God thought I was a hopeless case and had moved on to other things.  I had one person who still accepted my calls. She was a friend from seminary days and a pastor of a small church in Maryland. Drunk and angry, I called her at 2:00 am.  It seemed she was finished with me, just like God.  She told me she could not go through this with me any longer.  She made me write a phone number down and promise to call it. Then she hung up.  I was devastated.  I just told her I was trying to kill myself.  How could she hang up on me?  (I had no way of knowing that she had been going to AlAnon.)

I don’t know why I made the call to the number she gave me, but the Hotline counselor stayed on the phone with me until dawn.  It was the beginning of my rescue from the “upside down.” Because of that call, I found my way to a therapist, who after two years of therapy would become my closest friend, confidant, spiritual mentor, and guide for the next eighteen years.  I became part of the fellowship of a twelve-step program where strangers became a family who showed me that God still and had always loved me.

Although I have never returned to the “upside down,” I know it still exists.  Many are trapped there without any hope. I often share my story with others, and I write about it on this blog because I want those who have lost faith to see that there is life on the other side. I want them to hear someone say that God always has and still loves them.

I have been given everything back everything I lost and more. I was blessed for many years with a job working on staff for the same type of Hotline that I had called.  I was able to listen and talk with those who had lost hope.  I am now in college about to finish my undergrad degree, hoping to pursue my masters, and begin a journey to follow where God is calling me.  I am going to begin even though I am not sure where that journey will lead.  I have genuine friendships, a family that continues to grow, and on top of it all, I have peace and serenity knowing that God is with me.

During this time of year, I hold tightly to my faith.  While I escaped the “upside down,” much like the young boy I am sometimes still haunted by memories.  As February ends, and March comes in to welcome spring, I am faced with the tenth anniversary of the death of the woman who was my closest friend as well as the anniversary of the death of Mama Pearl.  Mama Pearl was a second mother to me throughout my life.   While there is profound pain in these memories, there is joy in my remembrances of them.  They will be with me in spirit as I celebrate 31 years of continuous sobriety in April.

I got lost in the “upside down” a long time ago, but God pulled me back through grace and love.      I know I never have to return-even during periods of questioning or suffering.  Anne Lamott wrote, “I do not understand the mystery of grace — only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.”  God met me in a place of darkness and despair and brought me out into a new life. I am excited to see where God leads me next.