Voids Fill Up Differently, Students of IACT [great book club books txt] 📗

from his stroke. Right before he gave up on finding a solution, a colleague recommended him to a physiotherapist that many of his friends and relatives had gone to and was cured of all their ailments. His name was Dr Patrick Han who worked in a hospital in Uptown Damansara called Grandview Hospital. As soon as he got the recommendation, he called Patrick’s office and made an appointment.

A week later, Aden showed up to his appointment. As he entered the consultation room, he caught a glance of a crucifix hanging above his desk but made nothing of it. Patrick asked him to take a seat and asked him what the problem was. Aden explained exactly what had happened and expressed all the trials and tribulations he went through trying to find a solution to his predicament. Patrick put his hand on his shoulder and told him the procedure was going to start. Confused, Aden just sat there and wondered what he meant. Patrick closed his eyes and started praying over him.

After the session ended, Aden asked, “Wow, that was quick. What did you do?”

“I called upon the healing power of God” Patrick revealed.

“GOD?” Aden shouted in protest, “Did they teach you about God in medical school or did you actually go there to learn modern medicine? Quit with your delusive perceptions and tell me the truth!”

“You can choose to believe it or not but I hope you will realize the miracle God has granted you by the time you meet me for your next appointment,” replied Patrick calmly.

“There is no point in discussing it further, as a matter of fact, I do not think we’ll be needing the next appointment,” retorted Aden almost immediately. Angered with his past and the lack of professionalism the doctor showed, he stormed out of his office. In all the rage, he absolutely did not realize that he can actually walk again.

As he got into his car, still livid with Patrick’s claims, he told his driver to drive him straight home.

“You can walk again, sir?” asked his driver, astonished.

“SHUT UP AND DRIVE! Yeah I can walk again and what about it?” snapped Aden. “Drop me off here! I’ll walk home!”

He got out of the car and made his way to a liquor store, picking out a bottle of Rittenhouse Straight Rye from the top shelf. All he wanted to do was go home and drown his conscience in a sea of ignorance.

When he got home, he exchanged the suits for a silk robe and poured himself a glass of whiskey on the rocks. Kicking his feet up on the coffee table, he leaned back in his recliner and sipped on his alcohol. To keep himself occupied, he watched a few episodes of House of Cards while pouring himself drink after drink. Soon, he found himself nodding off and decided that it was time to go to bed. He made his way to the room in hopes to fall asleep, but sleep never came. He couldn’t scratch the itch he had about the whole situation that had happened earlier in the day.

“How did I get healed? Why am I living in denial? Why am I so angry at the fact that something good happened to me? Why?”

 His mind replayed the scenario over and over again but he just couldn’t settle with this conclusion. So, he decided that there was only one thing he could do to get this weight off his chest. Stumbling out of bed and downing the last bit of whiskey left in the bottle, he made his way into his kitchen and grabbed his phone that was sitting on the countertop. The glaring light of the screen’s brightness in the dark made his eyes squint as he struggled to find Patrick’s contact. In the struggle, he dropped his phone and had to bend over to pick it up. As the moonlight shone in through his large arched windows, he caught a glimpse of the shadow of his body. It was bizarre. The shadow of his feet was limped and laid flat on the ground whereas his actual feet were straight and fine. This phenomenon shook him to the core. In a cold sweat, he quickly picked up his phone and frantically dialled Patrick’s number. Even though it was an ungodly hour, Patrick picked up the phone.

 “Dr Han? I’m so so sorry about what happened earlier today. It was unprofessional of me to act that way and I didn’t even get the chance to thank you for making me walk again. I still can’t comprehend how you did it but again I truly apologize. I won’t lie and give you a song and dance about the way I acted but I would love to meet you and find out more about you and what it is that you do,” apologized Aden. “How does 5 o'clock on Wednesday sound? We’ll meet at the cafe down the street from the hospital.”

Patrick accepted his apology and complied with his invite to meet.

“Oh, and drop the Doctor, just call me Patrick,” he said as he hung up the phone leaving Aden to the darkness of the room, awaiting the date set.

In a blink of an eye, the day has come to meet Patrick. “Where to this fine Wednesday morning, sir?” inquired his driver.

“The Last Bean Cafe, I’m feeling good today. Put on some Dean Martin,” Aden said as he shrugged on his blazer and leaned back.

Just as he pulled up to the cafe, he got a call from a good friend of his named Mr Lim who told him how his son had died in a horrible accident where he was hit by a car. His heart dropped immediately as he was quite fond of the boy and had high hopes for him.

With a heavy heart, he walked into the cafe and ordered a cup of Caramel Macchiato. While collecting his coffee, he glanced over and saw Patrick sitting down by a bookshelf reading the Bible. He walked over to him and as he was about to extend his arm out to greet him, his wallet fell out of the side pocket of his coat. Patrick bent down and helped to pick up Aden’s open wallet. What he couldn’t help but notice was an old monochrome picture of his family inside the wallet.

“Here, I don’t mean to intrude or anything but the photo that you keep in your wallet, is that your family?” asked Patrick.

Aden paused for a moment, sighed, and said, “Depends on how you define family. Settle in, I’ve got a long story to tell you.”

Aden then gave him a rundown of his childhood. All the trials and tribulations that he faced on a day to day basis which greatly contributed to his decision to drop the Catholic faith and opt for atheism. When he was done, Patrick took a deep breath and said, “That’s heavy. It really is a lot to take in. But you know, your mom was right about God testing you. I always believe everything that happens is all part of a plan God had prepared. You and me sitting here today, is, in fact, something deliberately prearranged by God. The stroke you had? It was to humble you and bring you back to him. There is always a purpose in his works.”

“A purpose? I just got a call from my friend Mr Lim who informed me that his son got hit by a car this morning and just like that, he’s gone. He was only eight Patrick. EIGHT! What reason could our oh-so-righteous God possibly have for taking away the life of an innocent boy like him?”

“That is a question only God can answer. I’m sure there’s a good reason behind it. Christianity and all religions for that matter are more than just the surface level. Its themes of good and malice, of direction, fortune, conciliatory love, equity, benevolence, elegance, recovery, absolution, and immortality in the afterlife resound profoundly inside us. What's more, we can discover them woven into all the best and most inspiring stories ever told by people.”

Aden looked at him and went, “So I’m meant to just pray that everything will go fine?”

Patrick then told him about his wife, who had, in fact, converted him from being an Atheist himself. He said,” At whatever point that I was experiencing distress or had a hard choice to make, she'd tell me, "I'll say a little prayer for you." This was initially quite irritating to me. It was as if I'd had my limbs cut off and she was telling me, "Don't stress, I'll get my non-existent friend to get a few plasters for your massive wound." In time, be that as it may, I understood that, for her, when she prayed, it came from her innermost being where she opened herself up to something that he could not see but could feel. When I got that, it changed the way I felt about it all. Eventually, as a non-believer, when she prayed over me, I felt warm and uplifted even though I didn’t believe. But soon, with time, I too became a believer.”

“With all due respect, how do you even believe in something you can’t see? I justify my doubts with science and it gives me solid proof but how do you simply believe in a God yet be so uncertain of so many other things?”

Patrick replied,” I think the real question here is why do you believe in nothing instead of something?”

“Well, it’s not why, but how. Then why is it irrelevant? I am simply an atheist because there are roughly 4,200 religions around the world currently and if I don’t believe in your God, you’re just not believing in the other 4,199 Gods. Science has never let me down. Even the Catholics couldn’t stay in one piece for long before a bunch of different denominations broke away and made their own churches. But, science will forever be universally understood and everyone can agree on the same justifications for why things are the way they are,” Aden uttered with conviction.

“Religious faith is an engineered belief. All religions are man made. Religious people always assume that us atheists live without any morale as a guideline. But as an atheist, I believe in humanity, good morals, the idea of treating others how you yourself would like to be treated. When I die, if I'm wrong regarding the afterlife, would whichever god I am to be judged by not having the knowledge to know my thoughts, to see what I've achieved, to know I've treated others with compassion and have used the mind and body he created for good and without his guidance, yet thrown into the fires of hell because I didn't believe in a religion? There are millions of bad people who hide behind religion, who use religion as an excuse for their behaviour and sins but yet they are forgiven for those sins by other religious people simply because of that belief in a God? I find that hard to believe.”

Patrick paused for a moment, realising that what Aden said was, in fact, true and made sense to him. Nonetheless, he still explained to him how religious morals were used to keep society civilized back in the day and so they continued practising it because it was part of their religious practices.

Patrick also agreed with Aden’s statement on the importance to challenge your own beliefs. But, there was one thing that didn’t rest easy with him - Aden’s concept of the afterlife.

“You say that atheists will be condemned to hell for eternity while believers get a free pass into heaven, correct? Well, you would be wrong about that because my God is a forgiving and understanding God. For the Atheists, he will judge you based on all the good or bad you have done throughout your lifetime. He will be just in judging who is and who isn’t worthy of eternal paradise. The religious don’t get a