Testimonial


PREFACE BY THE EDITOR: In honor of Averett’s renewed affi liation with the Virginia Baptist


Association, the Ember would like to celebrate this partnership with a special editorial piece.


The union between the academic world and theological one signifi es


a totality of learning we should all strive to obtain. When we fi nd ourselves at odds with one another over issues of science and faith, we actually detract from gaining any real insight into the world around us. If instead we could mark our lives with cooperation, defi nite truths would make themselves much more apparent.


The following essay describes one student’s struggle with the emotional


and spiritual and her ultimate realization that God is the most important unifying principle on Earth.


Daddy, Is that You? by Anonymous


I always threatened to speed away


on my Huffy bike when Mom didn’t let me have my way. I would swear I had pedaled for fi fty miles or so, although in actuality I never got more than a mile away. Then, just like clockwork, she would drive down the road, pick me up, throw my bike in the van, and take us back home. It was always a silent ride.


Somehow in these moments, whether


it was the wind passing my face on the bike or the quiet hum of the van as Mom drove me home, I was able to block out all the bad memories of weekends with Dad and instead glorify him. My imagination ran wild as we would round the corner to my house: he was my perfect Daddy, a musical artist who loved me and could take me


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away from all the pain in my world. Over time, however, the blinders were removed and I began to comprehend his destructive behaviors—his temper, his manipulation, his drinking—and all at once my dream of him was shattered. You can’t dream forever. You have to wake up. I fi nally stopped dreaming of him


altogether. I simply walked around with the gaping hole he had left behind. Before I had time for the wound to


close itself, there was my stepdad, a man who fi lled my father’s void all too well. I used to think he was a better dad, more supportive and more loving. When he and Mom started dating, my family life fi nally began to progress to one with white picket


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