This morning I had the honor of sharing my relationship graph with God while teaching someone one on one. For those that are not Grief Recovery Alumni the relationship graph is a component of GR where you graph out all the events related to a specific relationship. There is then further work to do to complete those events. In graphing a relationship with God, the graph is comprised of all of those events that affected our view of God. It’s a pretty intense graph.
I’ve only shared that graph a couple of times and it has been awhile since I shared. There were so many incidents that I hadn’t thought about in awhile. In 2003 I lived in Hollywood. I was not a Christian and had no idea what I believed in. I was also addicted to meth. One night I had a party and my ex-boyfriend was there. I asked him to leave. He did; however, he stayed in his car outside in the carport. As the party ended two of my friends stayed behind. Later, we called the police and asked them to remove my ex from the car port. After a few calls they said they couldn’t remove him; however, they did tow his car due to an invalid license.
I lived in a small tri-level apartment at the time. I went up to my room to make a phone call. While I was on the phone I heard one of my friends yelling to call 9-1-1. I saw my ex appear in the doorway and I ran in to the bathroom and locked the door. He was immediately up against the door trying to break it down. I remember looking out the window and thinking that there was no way for me to escape. It was a tiny bathroom and I felt helpless. I called 911 and they put me on hold. The police did arrive before he could break the door down and he ran away. The police told my friends and I to lock the front door and stay put while they went to arrest him. What happened next seems like movie material.
We were sitting at my dining table on the second story of the apartment. I remember hearing a cracking noise and I started running. My ex had climbed up the balcony and crashed through the french doors tumbling the dining table over. I merely heard the noise and headed for the stairs. He tackled me on the stairs and had his hands around my neck. I remember looking in to his eyes and seeing nothing but black. There was no distinction between his pupil and the color of his eyes. He didn’t speak, he merely uttered some noises. Though I am certain he was on drugs I am also quite certain that I was looking in to the eyes of a demon. My friend grabbed him and attempted to pull him off of me. Though he was pulled back he quickly lunged forward and bit me on the side of the leg. Yes, he really did. When my friend saw that his eyes got big and this time he lodged one foot in the stair rail for leverage, grabbed my ex and they both started tumbling backward. Though my ex was still hanging on to me I felt his grip move to only the material of my sweatpants. I quickly stepped out of them and ran upstairs in to the bedroom where my other friend was (my first friend’s girlfriend). I locked the door and as soon as it locked my ex was up against it on the other side.
I called 911 a second time and this time they told me to calm down. I did not respond very well to that. Then the door got quiet and there were voices on the other side of the door and the police were there. When we opened the door a big burly police officer grabbed me and hugged me. He told me that when they drove by they had seen the balcony door ajar and feared that I was dead. He was grateful to see me alive. I was grateful to be alive. The police quickly ushered us in to the back of a police car outside for safety. My ex had run off again. This time they found him under a car in the parking lot and used taser guns to get him out. It took 6 police officers. By the time the scene was over there were 8 police cars in front of the building and 2 police helicopters over top.
Aside from a small mark on the side of my leg, I was unharmed. I know that God was present that night. I know that He protected me in ways I probably don’t understand. There was some spiritual battle raging around me that I was oblivious to.
My life is so much different now that I forget about this. Sharing my graph this morning helped me to be grateful. God truly plucked me out of the world for reasons I cannot imagine. I know that He loves me and I know that He has plans for me. Just like He has plans for you.
