Chapter 12: Prisoner Because Of A Promise

A past memory. The imprisonment of the Three. Meanwhile, Delta in the present has a conversation with Friday. But something is coming.

YOUNG DELTA

"You can't do this to us!" Aezlith shouted. Delta closed her cell door. Stepping back.

Death and Conquest who were in the back of the cell woke up with a start. "What?" They both asked. They looked up shocked at Delta. Dawn walked up from behind standing beside Delta.

"Of course," Death spat. "You would seek to cast us aside! We are you! Your own blood! Your own self conjurings of you! Parts of you! Thoughts of yours! Given voice! Opinions of you given life! For what?! Another version of us? A newer version that would bring out the best in you? You could've changed us in your head to be like her but yet you want to play the victim and say you're innocent. Brand us, traitors?! YOU ARE EVIL DELTA ADAMS!"

"You have been given one role and will stay that. You can't change."

Death grabbed the bars trying to pull them apart to no avail. Letting out a frustrated cry. "Do you say that because you believe you can't change yourself? You talk about joining Christianity and their family. That family has only brought death. Their God has only brought death. The crusades. Early Jewish history and all the genocide. OUR GRANDFATHER! You want to join them?"

"Look I understand. You're like a voice of doubt trying to point out red flags in the decision I am about to make. But I don't really know how to say it in any other words right now, but Christianity is the truth."

Dawn stepped forward with a happy face on. "Aw, are you sad? I am an upgrade. Let's go Delta. They claim they fight for you but when you summoned them they were kind of dark at the start. Bad influence. Not to mention they offered to kill us in order to escape sadness but you chose to live after remembering a song. A Christian song. Plus suicide is wrong. And now you want into the Christian party. I can show the ropes." Delta nodded in agreement. They were about to leave but Death called after them. Making them both paused.

"Make no mistake Dawn, what she has done to us she will do to you." Dawn had no words and Delta didn't know what to think.

"Let's go shall we?" Delta asked. Dawn nodded and they both left the Three in the dark.

DELTA PRESENT

Delta texted Friday in the Discord. Friends talking. She smiled at the thought.

Friday: I know this is probably sounding like a broken record, but I don’t not believe you need to hold to that. God would not have you hold to a promise you made in contradiction of Him. I am not asking you to break every promise you make, rather, ask why you hold to the ones you’ve made. Do you fear God will punish you if you break them? Do you feel it would be against your honor or character to break a promise?

Delta: I feel like it would be against my honor and my character, yes. I am not sure about fearing God part.

Friday: My next question is, why do you have a sense of honor or character? My aim here is not to try and tear apart any moral compass, rather to find the foundation of one.

Delta: I think it goes back to the very first promise I made. With family. With my two brothers Ethan and Brayden when we were very young. I remember this memory so well. They do not. But we all made a promise not to marry. That is what started it. My parents and I have heard of a few others say this maybe even a pastor or two. Say let your yes be yes and your no be no. So I believe that plays into how it all happened. And when I make a promise to yes I'll do this or no I won't do that. It's like that. And part of my honor comes from me wanting to be good and a respectable person. I heard from others when I was with the church God being a promise keeper. When I was in I was going to attempt to do that. And I guess I still am. But I see what you're saying I have been thinking about it. During the dance, I was thinking what if I made a new promise. Sort of, I don't remember the promise I was thinking of I had in mind but it would involve breaking not to follow God forever one. Not sure I don't remember what I was thinking that day.

Delta: And I have been recently contemplating about it. I think about it. It gnaws at me from time to time. Follow God forever and not follow him forever. And how I have two that contradict. Eh, I need to take a side. . .I feel like. I believe still in your heaven and hell sometimes at least. And the Christians are not the enemy though my mind sometimes tries to say they are sometimes. But you guys are against the demons and hell according to that scripture I think that was in Romans about spiritual forces and darkness.

Friday: So I see what you are saying, but again I am going to ask, what is it all for? Being right for the sake of being right is useless, the same for being good for the sake of being good. Scripture is a flimsy foundation if you reject the true author of it. I am not saying throw it all away, but I am saying look at the big picture. Right now you are trying to be good on your own strength, trying to be honorable and someone of good character all on your own power.(and if I may be so bold, I believe that is what you did while you were a Christian, which is why it was an impossible burden to bear.) But what does being good for good’s sake matter? Sure, you are a better human. But you a still human. And I don’t think I need to make a speech about the inherent wickedness of humanity, I believe you already know it. It’s why the Bible speaks about transformation. Humans on their own can do really well, they can get pretty good, but they can never get past being a human and all the failures and flaws that come with it. Only by the power of God can you actually overcome all these thoughts and flaws and weaknesses that have haunted you from birth. It’s not an easy process though. Pastor Leo once described this all in a big (somewhat goofy) metaphor. The butterfly. Let’s say humans are the caterpillars. No matter how awesome that caterpillar is, it’s still a caterpillar. It has to undergo transformation to fly. But the transformation involves the death of its old self. And not a quick easy death, but a long process, a perfecting and changing and shedding to slowly become more like a butterfly, and less like a caterpillar.

Friday: I think a question you haven’t been asking is if you need a savior. It is important to know if God is good or not, but if you think you don’t need His help and you can do it on your own, it really won’t make a difference. But if you say you do need His help, and that you need His grace, I am here to help you walk through that journey of finding who God really is.

Friday: I can’t save myself. I can’t do a single thing too. No human can because we are just that, human.

Delta: Give me a sec to type and think.

Friday: Feel free to take your time.

She sat there thinking. Then she remembered it. The promise she was thinking of at the dance. Tears began to fall but she managed to type and say what she needed to say.

Delta: I remember the promise I was thinking about making during the day of the dance.

Delta: What is it all for? I don't know. . .Maybe an act of rebellion and hate. Bitterness maybe. Unhealthy. That I can live without religion. Which I can and others do it. But in my case. . .probably unhealthy considering things that are in my head from time to time.

Delta: Yeah, I probably was doing it on my own.

Delta: I will like to add. Yesterday when Pastor Junior was speaking he mentioned some people getting jealous while God blessed others and not them. And that hit me because I was like that. Especially when I felt alone and sad back in the day.

Delta: Are you fine if I ask my own question. You fight for my "redemption?"

Delta: I remember the promise I was thinking about making during the day of the dance. In the show, I have been watching. They make a promise. Always and forever. It's about family and whatnot.

Delta: I was thinking about making a promise that I would stand by you, Freya, and the Millers: Always and forever in this life or the next. That I would do my best to follow your God again. But then past memories came up at that moment. And it would probably be me again. Only me. Looking out for myself. It's hard trying to not fight my own stuff by myself.

Delta: About the savior thing. I haven't felt a need for one. So that's another thing. Well, I thought I had it. I thought I was following God and accepted him I thought I trusted him but I am wrong I think.

Friday: Thank you for your honesty. As for your question for me, yes and no that I am fighting for your redemption. I am actually trying to help you reevaluate and make a firm foundation for what you believe, whether or not it’s Christianity. However, I believe Christianity is the only truth in the world, so I believe that if you truly are honest about it all, you’ll come back to Christianity. So no in the sense I am here to help you regardless of what you believe, but yes in the sense, I believe that you drawing closer to God, and God is calling you to Him.

Friday: And you don’t have to be alone. Those are the lies of the devil. Christianity is never meant to be lived alone, nor is life in general. This doesn’t mean you have to get married, but it means you need community. I am not going to push you away, and I don’t think the others will either.

Friday: As for feeling the need for a savior, I think few people do. Only when someone really is horror-struck by their actions will they feel the need for one. But as we learned, feelings are a bogus way to learn and understand things. Intellectually we can know we need a savior. If God is real, and sin is real, and what God has said about sin is real, then a savior is needed. You don’t need to be feeling guilty or shameful to need a savior, you just need to know you need a savior, not feel. Also, be careful not to overthink things, I do it a lot as well. It used to be if I sat down and thought for a really long time about whether or not I was saved, I’d start doubting constantly if I was. I’ve been able to help that by learning the Bible and wisdom. It’s wise to test what you believe, but it’s unwise to simply dwell mindlessly on it.

Friday: Lastly, this is just something I really want to keep saying. You don’t have to be perfect to be a Christian. It would actually be impossible to be Christian if you were perfect because God wouldn’t have had to die for you. You also don’t need to be good enough either.

Friday: God accepts you as you are, mercy is crazy that way. It’s after you are saved that He begins working to help change things. But He first asks for you, then change. Not the other way around. (That is also the source of a lot of pain from the church, is when they mix that order up.)

Delta: Thanks for the talk!

Friday: Yeah! I'm happy to talk. I hope some of it was useful or made sense.