The Evangelist: When Robots Rule

By David N. Cousins

Gabe, the son of a megachurch pastor, has spent his life trying to break free from his fathers expectation to be his successor. Through a twist of fate, Gabe finds himself hurled into a world of technology fraught with dangers that no one foresees. Robots are now in control and plot to destroy mankind and rule the world. His tekkie friend Ernie believes that Gabe is the only one to stop the madness. Ernie unwittingly traps Gabe in a series of catastrophic events that could destroy him and the world itself. Through this maelstrom of insanity, Gabe undergoes a spiritual transformation and discovers a depth of love he had always longed for, thanks to his mothers unwavering spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483632575

David N. Cousins

A Methodist pastor for forty-seven years, David N. Cousins is a graduate of Wheaton College, with two Masters degrees and a Doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary. David has been a pastor to nine different congregations of all sizes and theological perspectives. Having served as a District Superintendent and Adjunct Professor at Drew University and Eastern Baptist Seminary, Dr. Cousins continues to share his life-long experience in the church as a pastor to pastors. He and his wife Barbara live in rural New Jersey, where he is working on his next novel about angels who visit in times of great peril.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by David N. Cousins.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2013907575

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4836-3256-8

           Softcover      978-1-4836-3255-1

                Ebook         978-1-4836-3257-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/09/2013

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Contents

1    A Certain Future

2    Success Interrupted

3    Satan at Work

4    Who’s in Control?

5    Learning to Listen

6    The Life Option

Dedicated to Barbara

The love of my life,

The joy of my life,

The pure reflection of God’s own love.

1

A Certain Future

N ow let’s be very clear about why we are here. The newly self-appointed and self-approved professor had just begun lecturing a class of wet-eyed recruits supposedly seeking to enter the predetermined future of which he was so certain. With only a few cynical eyes shooting up toward the ceiling in response to such an opening line, the class pretended to settle down, and at least act as though they were in total obedience, while listening for whatever evolving power was apparently taking over the world.

Ronald Singleton, or Professor Singleton as he preferred to be called, was determined to make his point as he continued in a voice far too loud, and made far worse by a P.A. system tuned up at least double the necessary decibels,. I repeat, let’s be perfectly clear about the importance of what takes place here and what you are about to learn. To begin with, and you had better mark this down as life’s lesson number one, whatever you have learned in school or in life up until now is total nonsense, it is simply not true because it is all passé, so passé it has nothing to do with the world we are all about to enter. You might have found your way into this new world already if you had not ignored the basic fact of life, namely, there are creatures, a whole generation of creatures, far smarter than we are and far more powerful: an evolved set of organisms to whom we had better bow in total obeisance or be destroyed in our arrogant refusal to do so. We are here to learn about how we must adjust to this new dynamic before we destroy ourselves in the process by continuing to ignorantly cling to our past assumptions which, as it turns out, are totally untrue, so untrue they border on boorish folly.

This overblown verbiage went on for nearly an hour and half, during which time more and more eyes cast themselves on the blank ceiling and the cynicism in the room became so palpable hardly anyone in the group could sit still any longer. When the meeting finally broke up Ernie and Gabe pulled themselves off to the side and quickly agreed to eat lunch together, by themselves, hopefully with no one else around. However, as it turned out, to no one’s real surprise, the institute, now claiming the title of ‘University’, had other plans. The whole group must eat together or anyone refusing to do so would be expelled. Since none of them had come to this ten week course without coughing up fifteen thousand bucks, no one was willing to sacrifice their tuition to demand their own wishes.

But no sooner than had they made their decision to follow the latest commandment a voice, sounding incredibly similar to the overriding clatter they had just suffered through, demanded: Be very careful where you go and follow all directions carefully or you will regret your decisions for the rest of your life. Since it sounded as though doomsday had just arrived Ernie and Gabe both nodded to each other and began to focus on the signs posted along each step of their path. Stop here! Turn right here! At the end of the corridor you will see a double door. Be sure to open the right hand door only and enter one at a time. Soon sounds started coming through a P.A. system of some form which stretched all along their path so each member of the group would hear specific words spoken in a distinct cadence and specifically designed for each one of them individually. Ernie was the first to notice the different cadence and began to tell Gabe that he thought each word and phrase was attuned to their individual strides but as soon as he started to speak the voice demanded: Hush now! You will have an opportunity to speak later and you will be informed as to the proper time for any interchange of words and ideas.

As they entered what was obviously a dining room of some nature, they noticed that there were four tables with four chairs each and name plates in front of each setting on the table. And, most amazing of all, they found that all the place settings had their individual meals already in place. The variety of foods was endless, no two the same, and since all the hot meals were still spewing out the gentle steam in which they had been cooked it was immediately evident that the meals had been placed there within the last few minutes, yet no waiters or waitresses were in sight. With all the precision at which things were developing neither Ernie nor Gabe were surprised to quickly find their own places with their own name plates, but they were immensely surprised to find themselves assigned to sit right next to each other. Having followed all the commands with precision they had not had time to find out who else would be joining them at this table, but since the whole seminar had been limited to ten people the only mystery left was who would fill the last two places at their table and in what order would the others be seated. The answer came more quickly than they had expected. No sooner had all the seminar attendees been seated when seven more people entered the room. Two of them strode immediately to the two chairs remaining at the table where Ernie and Gabe were sitting and the others split up, each going to the other tables and filling up the empty seats.

The first one of the two appointed to sit with Ernie and Gabe sat down next to Gabe and introduced himself as Professor. Nothing more: just Professor. And just as Ernie started to ask for the rest of his name Professor quickly addressed both Ernie and Gabe by name and notified them in no uncertain terms that all they needed to know about him must be stated in the simple term: Professor. Once again, totally stunned, Ernie and Gabe simply looked at each other, half in curiosity and half in total disgust. Finally Ernie made one more attempt. Looking at Professor’s colleague who had just taken the last remaining chair at the table he said: And how may we address you sir? This man, obviously several decades younger than Professor said: Oh, just call me Robo.’ That pretty much summarizes who I am and what I do.

Lunch did not go well in spite of the individualized meals obviously meant to show personalized care to the zenith. Robo said little but appeared to listen raptly as the Professor went on and on in the same style as the other Professor who had dominated the morning session and who was now seated at one of the other tables. But the more this ‘Professor’ went on the more Ernie did his best to ignore him, sometimes looking blankly at the ceiling, at other times staring at the door as though hoping it would open, and the rest of the time just gazing down at his plate trying to enjoy the specialized food in spite of his on-going irritation with the domineering Professor. Gabe, on the other hand, while pretending to pay close attention to what was being said, began looking closely at the Professor, almost staring him in the face. Something strange was going on here and, although Gabe could not quite get his mind around it, he suspected something extremely devious or perhaps even inhuman was taking place. Lunch could not end quickly enough for either of them and as they started to move out of the lunch room into the corridor and then back into what was being called the class room it was obvious to Gabe that all ten of the attendees—actually only nine since one seat had remained vacant all morning—were acting as though they had been thrown into some weird world totally unknown to any of them.

As they all settled in for the next set of offensive lectures the door opened at the very last moment and in walked a robot moving down the aisle carefully but demandingly and then situated itself in the very chair which had remained empty all morning. The afternoon professor was already in place at the podium and on the exact strike of the hour he began his, or was it her, lecture. This man, if it was a man, was much shorter than the morning professor and far more gentle in tone. As a matter of fact his speech was so soft, so boring and irritatingly monotonous practically no one paid attention. Once again, however, Gabe put forth the effort to listen so carefully his whole body seemed to be poised as a single ear intent on listening to every word being said. Although it may have appeared to everyone else that he was listening, as a matter of fact he was scrutinizing the speaker as closely as possible. He was obviously more interested in the person speaking than in the content of what was being said. Although this professor had introduced himself, or herself, simply as Professor, yet half way through the lecture professor number two referred to the morning professor as Professor of Biotechnology. Gabe’s interest was captured and now he knew he would be spending some time in what was for him a very new area of learning and expertise.

G abe had come about this new venture in life in a very strange way. He was the Associate Pastor of a large church in Oakwood, New Jersey, a church of which his father was the founder and current pastor. The town was nestled in a former farming community now an exurb of a large city which in turn was surrounded by endless suburban research centers. Gabe’s father, Jacob Wingate, had served a small Methodist church in Oakwood but had been disillusioned with the endless wrangling for power among the members of this tiny church; struggles which occupied nearly everyone’s time and prohibited the church from growing. A farmer, by the name of Daniel Samuelson, who was a member of the same congregation, had been befriended by Pastor Wingate after his wife died. Dan, as he preferred to be called, began to face the fact that he was growing old and needed to plan for a future after he was gone. But most of his dilemma about the future arose from his wondering what would happen to his one hundred and twenty acre farm, serenely placed only a few miles outside of Oakwood. He had neither children nor relatives who would be in line to take over the farm after he died and he was especially troubled since he had lived on, and loved this farm for his entire life. The farming life had been his very life and each of those endless oak trees, surrounding the three acres on which his house and farm buildings stood were engrained in his very psyche. Not in his wildest nightmares could he even picture some prosperous building developer coming in, tearing down his beloved buildings and tossing up houses created by some useless cookie cutter, running cement roads down through his beautiful fields of hay and grain and evicting all these abundant, living creatures God had placed here for the nourishment of human beings and all other living creatures. The very thought of this possibility literally nauseated him. It was while he was in the process of explaining this haunting nightmare with his pastor that Pastor Wingate began to share his own concerns for the future of their tiny church in this beautiful town. Then together they began to dream of a huge church placed in the center of these God-given fields; a church which would have more than ample space should the Lord bless their plans which they both felt were coming directly from God Himself. Through all these deliberations and dreams Dan and Pastor Wingate became such close friends it was almost as though they had each replaced the very brothers they had both lost only a few years before. Since Dan was considerably older than Pastor Wingate he was the first to pass away but, with mutual agreement, he left his farm to a legal corporation the two of them had founded; an institution already known as Oakwood Community Church.

Even before the death of Dan Samuelson Pastor Wingate, at considerable sacrifice, left the Methodist ministry and founded a small Bible Study group which met in the living room of the farm house which had been Dan’s home for most of his life. After Dan’s death, by mutual agreement, the down-stairs of the home was renovated into one large room with individual chairs placed in a semi-circle facing a dais large enough for a small choir and a podium which was to be used for the reading of scripture and preaching. With the growth of new homes on almost all the former farms surrounding Dan’s home, attendance at the services began to grow by leaps and bounds. It was not long before they had to tear down the barn, which was set back a considerable distance from the road, and replace it with a much larger church building, complete with side rooms for a nursery, Sunday School classes, offices and even a library. Within a very few years the parking lot became so crowded it had to be expanded again and again, and various needs of the congregants became so pressing they had to build almost an entire shopping center, complete with separate buildings such as an automotive service center, a place where poorer people and others facing stressing circumstances could bring their cars for repair which, without any cost to the owners, would be cared for by some of the volunteer church members who had expertise in that particular field. The rapid growth of the church, however, put immense pressure on Pastor Wingate who had to seek help for nearly every aspect of church life. His hardest task was to find someone to support him in the specific task to which he felt he was called: namely preaching. Being extremely choosey in allowing anyone to replicate his specific duties he continually pressured his own son, Gabe, to fulfill the task, but Gabe kept resisting this pressure for almost his entire life even while faithfully doing the job. To be a pastor was the last thing in the world Gabe wanted to do, and even after he had taken endless hours to pray and seek God’s guidance in finding his appropriate place in this world, Gabe felt he was totally unequipped with the necessary talents and gifts for this position his father so cherished.

Although Gabe felt constant pressured to be the exact replica of his father, when it came to parental influence, Gabe was far more impressed with the life of his mother, and the serene posture by which she listened to God. She seemed to live her life with such deep devotion many, many people became attracted to her way of living. At a very deep level she was filled with great joy, a peace which seemed unshakable and a faith which appeared to conquer every pain and difficulty life threw at her. She accepted her husband’s frenetic life and molded a life beside him which seemed never to get hooked by his impetuosity. Gabe had always felt close and comfortable with his mother while his sister Elise, or Elsa as their father insisted on calling her, preferred to be around their father in spite of the fact that he kept quite busy living in the manic world of his own invention. Gabe, while being eternally vigilant in trying never to follow his father’s life style, nevertheless continued to bow to his father’s petulance which was constantly forcing him into doing the precise things the father did in precisely the way he had chosen to do them. Many, many times his father would scold him for not doing things exactly the way he did them, and even failing to think the way he thought. Their mother proved to be an eternal blessing to Gabe. Somehow, almost miraculously, she constantly encouraged Gabe to be himself and follow the dreams he felt God was giving him day after day.

For Gabe the problem had begun even before he was born. His sister was five years older than he and for the five years after her birth their parents had struggled with the issue of whether or not they even wanted another child. His mother, strangely enough, finally won this argument and her husband agreed to have just one more child. Up until the day of his birth, however, they continued to argue about his name. His mother had run into a terrible disappointment when his sister was born. She had named his sister ‘Elise,’ but less than a month later after his father first learned that the true meaning of the name ‘Elise’ was ‘Sweetheart’, he openly declared such a name to be far too sexually implicit to ever be heard around this religious household. As a result his father insisted on calling his sister ‘Elsa;’ hardly aware that the name had become famous because of a lion, all be it, a friendly lion. As his parents began expecting a second child his father demanded that if it were a girl she be called Mary; and should the child be a boy he must be named Peter. Since his mother was a near genius at finding the most non-confrontive ways of dealing with any disagreement, she accepted his father’s decree on the condition his middle name be: Gabriel. Peter Gabriel was the final verdict. But, following his birth, it wasn’t long before his mother started referring to him as Gabe and since his father was not around the home very much, the name Gabe stuck with him the rest of his life.

As Gabe grew older he began to discover his father’s real intention in the ultimatum about his name. His father wanted him to follow in his shoes and take up the cause in which his father was so adamantly investing his life. Peter was to have been the rock on which the church of his father’s dreams found it sure foundation. But Gabe had no desire to follow his father’s dreams. In the quietest ways Gabe succeeded in switching every one of his father’s plans for him into something he felt was far closer to what he felt were his own talents and with which he was far more comfortable. In high school he had become far more interested in sports than anything with an academic ring to it, even though he had succeeded in school and even become the valedictorian of his class. In his own opinion at the time, however, it looked as though he was on the way to dedicating the rest of his life to accomplishing one physical feat after another, regardless of where that would lead him. When he finished high school his father, in disgust, kept telling him he would probably just waste his life away wandering off from one job to another. Yet, because he was totally unprepared to follow in his father’s footsteps, his father kept trying to push him off to a Bible College somewhere. Perhaps this would change his direction in life. Instead, because of his mother’s gentle influence and his sports background, he was given a scholarship to another college, however one with deep Christian roots. It was there, due to some rather strange circumstances he could only define as acts of God, he became extremely interested in academics, academics of any kind: linguists, social sciences, political science, hard science, soft science, all forms of mathematics but especially physics. During this time he also pursued various Christian service projects, even taking a year off and volunteering for a student teaching assignment in a remote village in Africa. From his years of being so active in sports he had learned to value the personal satisfactions of teamwork. It was these ever-deepening relationships with other people that moved him the most until the time came when he could only dream of becoming close to people very different from himself, especially those in great need. And yet the closer he got to these people the more he realized that what was really binding them together was something of a very deep spiritual nature, and the more he looked at that dimension of life, and the closer he got to the people most in need, the deeper he became convinced that they had more to offer him than he had to offer them. To find God dwelling in the deepest souls of people, especially those most in need of help was a discovery that changed his whole perspective on life itself.

After he finished college he was in a dilemma as to what to do next. It was during these days of uncertainty that his father, without his knowing, went to the board of directors of the church and talked them into making his son the Associate Preacher. This was no small feat and to accomplish it his father had to side-step some of the restrictions he himself had placed on the church from its start. Unlike the average church this particular church was not too much interested in the number of people the church could claim as members. It was more interested in the number of people who attended, or as they would explain it, the number of people to whom they were reaching out. Membership was considerably smaller than attendance because each person, upon deciding to become a member, had to abide within some very carefully defined expectations. First of all they had to be a member of one of the small groups. These classes, or Covenant Groups as his father insisted on calling them, also required them to follow specific regulations. The one saving factor in membership in these classes was that membership was only for one year. In other words, if any specific individual began to find himself or herself uncomfortable with the requirements of the particular class they were assigned to they could bale out after one year. The next requirement, however, was not so comfortable. In order to discern one’s specific ‘mission’, or place of service within the church family, one had to present their proposal to their class and then it was the class’s responsibility to determine whether this person’s God-given talents matched the specific mission to which they felt God was calling them. The pain of this form of decision-making was obvious. Very often a person’s whole aim in life could be vetoed by a group dedicated to discern the will of God for that particular person. So when Gabe’s father tried to push him into the position as his own assistant he had to violate the collective wisdom of not only Gabe’s class but his father’s class as well.

Gabe was extremely upset with what his father had done. He did not want to be a preacher of any sort, and even though he spent hours and years praying about his role in the body of Christ he was continually faced with the fact that there was no alternative to what had already been decided, regardless of the unfair way it had been decided. But at this time in Gabe’s life things were becoming even more complicated. His father was at the point where, because of aging issues, he too wanted out of his role in the church but, instead of facing it directly, he kept telling Gabe it was time for him to retire and for Gabe to take over the leadership of the church, or at least, fulfill the role his father kept referring to as the teaching leadership of the church. Gabe, having spent a lifetime watching how his mother dealt with uncomfortable relationships, was trying his best to emulate her, while his father was becoming more and more agitated by Gabe’s reluctance to take over his father’s duties; often accusing his own son of everything from indecision to disobeying the call of God.

It was in this context that Gabe ended up at Anthropost University. When his father started the Oakwood Church he had very carefully reached out to all his neighbors; thoroughly visiting every home within a five mile radius and inviting them to join him in this new Christian endeavor. With the simple, individual care he expressed, people were attracted to the church and to him as a person. His style of caring helped the church grow very rapidly because this community at that time consisted largely of farmers and blue collar workers with whom he could easily identify because he had grown up under very similar circumstances. But the neighborhood was changing rapidly. Over the years more and more farms were being turned over to wealthy developers who were building huge homes designed to attract more wealthy people, in particular the scientists and highly skilled technicians who worked in the Research Park just to the West of this town. And the Research Park itself was growing because of its proximity to a city dominated by a famous University and a world-renown Research institute. The people with the very sharpest minds, and on the cutting edge of society itself, were more and more drawn to this particular area but preferred to live in homes still savoring the ‘Garden State’ aura of this particular community. As a result Jacob Wingate, Gabe’s father, was having a more and more difficulty attracting his newest neighbors. After all Jacob had only attained a high school education and some of the advanced studies people were now talking about in this growing neighborhood were way over his head. But Gabe, his son, had not only achieved a college education but had already spent several years in advanced studies having received two master’s degrees, a Ph.D. in linguistics and completed most of the required courses for a doctorate in theology as well. Now the father was absolutely determined that it was only his son who could best relate to these newer people but, instead of admitting his son’s superior abilities, he continued to treat him as an inferior offspring of a more important person. This had gone on for most of Gabe’s life. His problem with his father had first become serious when Gabe reached the age of thirteen. His father, at an even six feet in height, was a relatively tall man but Gabe shot up another four inches and was quickly in the physical position of needing to look down at his father. His father was immensely jealous of his son; though in his position as a pastor he could never own up to such a flagrant sin of jealousy, let alone face it for what it implied about superiority. Gabe’s attraction toward the deeply spiritual aspects of his mother’s attitude only served to increase the distance between his father and himself. But now his father had connived his relationship with his son in such a way that the entire church body seemed to be forcing him to become his father’s replacement. He was thoroughly devastated, but trying desperately to live in the spiritual life his mother had shown him, he was at a total loss as to how to work his way through this problem which had quickly become life-sized.

While praying daily about this haunting problem one Sunday, following the church service, Gabe ran into Ernie in the church library. Although Ernie was a member of the church and his wife was very active in the outreach and healing ministry of the church, Ernie almost never attended. But on this Sunday while bumping into each other as they were leaving the library, Gabe was fascinated by the fact that Ernie was taking no books with him as he left. Since they had known each other for several years and even vacationed together they had frequently talked about Ernie’s ongoing research in several scientific fields including the physics which lay behind the recent rash of technological advancements, Gabe asked him what he had been looking for in the library. Ernie’s response was sharp and definitive: You have not one single book in this place about nanotechnology. Don’t you think you ought to get this place up-to-date?

Having known Ernie for so long as well as having spent considerable time with him in the past, including several vacations on treks deep into the Appalachian mountains of Western North Carolina, Gabe knew Ernie was only half joking and yet within this simple jest Gabe somehow knew God was speaking to him as well. The picture was becoming clearer. Obviously his father would never be able to speak to the deepest interests of people like Ernie or bring even the slightest twinge of God’s love to people wrapped up in technological futures. In a fraction of a second Gabe finally realized that maybe God did have a place for people like him after all. Following their brief exchange Gabe made a point of calling Ernie and trying to make a luncheon date with him so they could talk more. Instead Ernie invited Gabe over for dinner so they could not only chat together but so Gabe would also have a chance to visit with his family. Since Gabe was single it could have been an awkward situation if it had not been for Ernie’s two sons, one who was in college and the other about to finish high school. The after-dinner conversation quickly ran toward academics, such as what field the oldest son should pursue in his new college adventure, and how thoroughly Gabe thought the younger son was prepared for college, and to which colleges Gabe thought the boy should be applying. It was only at the end of their evening together that Ernie raised the possibility of his next venture. He told Gabe: I have finally discovered my next educational venture. Since Ernie already held a Ph.D. in Physics from no less an institution than Harvard University, and had spent over 20 years transforming that education into cutting edge technological marvels, as well as pursuing further research which promised even greater miracles, Gabe could hardly imagine what could possibly attract him beyond what he had already accomplished. But Ernie quickly quashed his curiosity: The whole future is up for grabs. I would love to be one of the first ones to get there. I am so eager I can hardly wait.

But Gabe, immediately tempted to poke some fun at him, restrained himself and instead posed a gentle question: Ernie, I’m surprised, truly surprised. I can’t imagine what would be more cutting-edge in the world of inventions than what you have already done. May I ask what it is that has so thoroughly caught your imagination?

"Well, Gabe, this seminar will not be dealing with inventions or merely mechanical things for sale, but finally it will be dealing with the basic philosophical issues surrounding the nature of human beings. After a few decades of electronics gone wild, all technology is suddenly approaching the possibility of a brand new world, the very world we have been dealing with since the evolution of the human species; the world you preachers are always promising is just around the corner. You’ve been saying that for a few thousand years, as a matter of fact, but now it is just around the corner, and frankly it has almost nothing to do with the silliness of Armageddon, the Apocalypse, the rapture, the great judgment, the millennium, the tribulation, the end of time and all the other fantasies your father is always talking about. And what is so surprising, and equally rewarding, is that this whole new world has nothing to do with evolution either. This new world we are on the verge of inventing will put an end to evolution and religion as well. Even death itself will become a thing of the past. We will all be alive forever, and even many of those we already consider dead will come alive and be with us again.

Yes, I know it all sounds weird but there are actually some facts and technological discoveries we have already made which give this proposition a very serious possibility. I am about to go West—you know how they always used to say, ‘go West young man, go West’—well I am about to go West and discover the future, the real, factual future. Want to come along?

Gabe, not sure whether to take him seriously or laugh at it all managed to follow the wisdom of his mother, to say: Well Ernie, that certainly is intriguing, let me consider the possibility and get back to you. Within a week Gabe had decided that this strange invitation may well be the very nudging from God he had been praying for. After all it had only been after many days, weeks and even years of praying that Gabe had discovered—much to the opposition of his father—that advanced education is one of the ways God’s children are able to honor the gift of the human brain with which God has endowed these strange creatures known as human beings. Perhaps cutting edge learning might honor the same eternal God who, at eternal sacrifice, made each of us one of his children, as close to his heart as though he had but One child.

T he second day of the seminar didn’t go much better, for Gabe at least, but it did give him a better chance to size up this brand new University and move a bit closer toward understanding its so-called ground-breaking mission in this world. The graduate seminar he was attending was a ten day course and it had cost his church a full fifteen thousand dollars, a fee he had no idea how he could ever repay. Actually it was his father, ever eager to put his son in debt to the church he was forcing him to serve, was the one who had cleverly connived his attendance at this event. With such growing bitterness toward his father torturing his heart at every spare moment Gabe hardly knew how to proceed into this second day. He was now faced with the series of strange episodes which had occurred during his first day. At first he could not understand why the University had made no provision at all for the housing of these attendees, but during his first day, as he became acquainted with the actual grounds of the University, he began to recognize that there was no conceivable place for dormitories, motels, hotels or housing of any sort anywhere near the place where the classes were being held. Actually there was no place for facilities of that sort within miles in any direction. This University was buried in an industrial park which, from the outside at least, looked more like an endless factory rather than an educational institution.

Gabe had made his own arrangements to stay in a low cost motel nearly ten miles away. As he approached the second day with his mind more and more filled with accumulating anger both at his father and now as well at this weird institution which seemed determined to shove all ordinary human beings under the tutelage of so-called Professors and robots, Gabe knew he was going to have to turn each aspect of his anger over to the God of love. Trying his best to relax he made a decision to expand his normal morning prayer into a full hour. By the time he got up, finished his prayers, prepared himself for the day and walked to the diner just a stone’s throw away from where he had spent the night, he began to feel the answer to his prayers. Rather quickly he began to focus on the people and machines of the previous day. He was now determined to observe each "professor’ more closely, watching and listening to the tiniest nuances of their speech and movements. He also was urging himself to become much more sensitive to the nuances of Ernie’s behavior as well as to make an effort to seek out another friend whom he had recognized from his college days many years before. Putting a more human front on all these seemingly inhuman manipulations made him feel much more comfortable in the day, in his own skin and in the eternity where he knew he was already living.

His breakfast was served by a gracious hostess. He quickly learned that her name was Linda. Her smile and friendliness made her an instant friend, a gift Gabe had been longing for ever since his long trip from one coast to the other where most people just came popping into life long enough to fulfill their specific little duty and then disappear into the background. Fortunately very few people had arrived for breakfast at the diner and Linda, a happy little soul, after taking time to kibitz with Gabe, actually stood beside him for several moments asking the kindly questions someone who really cares about other people would do. How are you, on this another beautiful day. Then later: Did you have a good night? And then while standing close and placing a lovely dish of fruit in front of him: I notice that you have come here from some distance. I trust your trip was rewarding and you will find a lovely welcome in our little place in the woods. Gabe found himself treating her with the same respect and courtesy, and now, keenly aware of the many ways in which God answers our prayers, quickly realized how God, through Linda, was teaching him the lessons he needed for this new day.

After he finished breakfast he drove off in his rental car to the industrial park where the so-called University was situated. Paying closer attention now than he had the day before when he was in such a rush, he noticed how the park had been overloaded with what appeared to be factories, with one chimney after another belching out smoke, one bleak façade after another seemingly erected for nothing more than its functional capacity and nearly every building cast as an almost exact duplicate of the one next to it. Off toward the center of the park, where the University was located, the buildings appeared to be more a succession of overblown garages than buildings having anything to do with education. It was a mechanical world; simply that and nothing more. Where was the humanity in all of this: the life, the plants, the animals, anything capable of breathing instead of forlorn buildings belching out more and more smoke?

Gabe parked his car next to what seemed to be a thousand more cars seemingly cut out of the same mold except for the oversized SUVS and so-called pick-up trucks which bumped their way into their individual parking spots like the fattest pig in a sty. Then he walked into the garage-like building which looked up at the classroom the group had used the previous day. He immediately began to pick