Who knew seven days could change everything?

I'm not a writer, but I do have a story to tell. If you've ever been blindsided by life the way that I was, you'll understand. I went from perfectly healthy, happy, and whole to stricken, confused, and abandoned.

My symptoms came out of nowhere and were severe and pervasive. You won't believe how quickly I declined and from a disease that I had never even heard of before! How could I not have known I was sick? Were there signs that I missed?

Why did such a bad thing happen to me, a "good" person? Well, "good" might be a stretch. Maybe that's why God ghosted me. Yeah, see, God had all but stopped speaking to me when I got sick. Wasn't that convenient? Right when I needed Him most and after all we'd been through? At one point, I was a licensed minister for goodness sake! Surely, that should have exempted me from hardship and sickness. Okay, full disclosure, that was a long time ago, and since then, for a few years, I basically became a heathen but still. I thought that was in the past. Water under the bridge. Well, maybe it wasn't. Maybe God was punishing me. Yet this seemed more than I deserved. I needed answers.

Seven days of hospitalization provided lots of time to consider my plight (physically and spiritually). It was time to mentally shift through my past, understand my present, and make tentative plans for my future. Little did I know, my life would be changed forever.