Still Waters

He wasn’t one to miss church for whatever reason so it was very odd that he was nowhere to be seen that particular Sunday.

David, the head of the choir, was always an hour early for every service. He was a man who loved his God and the house of God was one of his most favorite places. He’d be in a little after six o’clock to ensure that everything was just fine before the first service at eight in the morning. Before anyone else came in, David would have ensured that his sound was okay, and that the instruments were fully set up.

He’d then sit to wait for the rest of the worship team members.

The norm was that the worship team gets to church at least 45 minutes before the service. They needed time to pray together, go through a sound check and then do a dry run before the congregation starts streaming in. David was a leader and his mantra was that a leader ought to lead by example and lead he did.

He was an easygoing man.

He didn’t seem to have much that bothered him. He wasn’t exactly the life of the party, but he had moments when he’d light up if he found himself in the right crowd. He didn’t have many friends. He was a closed up person who was so entrenched in his job that he didn’t look like he had time for anything else. He’d been in this church for close to ten years now and no one could point out any of his friends. His family lived in the countryside. He lived in Nairobi by himself.

There was a joke that went around that David was too busy with the work of God to even date. He was a friendly man, yes, even to the sisters in the church, but that was just it, he never moved past the usual niceties. So he was a bachelor, he wasn’t a senior bachelor as yet, just a bachelor. His status didn’t bother him too. He was fine with it or so it appeared.

David was a banker in one of the local banks and so he’d balance his time between his love for music and the banking hall. Being a banker meant that his days were packed from Monday to Saturday in the bank and Sunday in church. He literally had no time for anything else.

It was almost time for the service to start and David was still nowhere to be seen. He couldn’t be reached on phone. It wasn’t being picked up.

So the worship leader was missing, but service couldn’t stop. The work of God doesn’t stop because someone is missing. One of his lieutenants quickly stepped in for him. Service went on without a hitch although your usual congregant could clearly see that someone was missing.

When all the services had ended, the team came together to ask each other whether anyone had heard from David. No one in the team had seen him since they had last met for practice the day before. He had, as always, headed home alone after the practice session in the evening and since he didn’t have many friends, it wasn’t easy to know whether he’d gone home or headed elsewhere.

So the team left it at that. They all assumed that he’d probably gotten an emergency and that he was just fine, he would show up sooner rather than later. They parted ways, everyone to his own Sunday afternoon business.

The church had only one midweek meeting, the Wednesday evening miracle service that David never missed. For some strange reason, everyone assumed that he must have had too much to do in the office. No one would give it much of a thought. During the week, David didn’t send his usual song list for the Sunday services. He was still not picking up his phone and he still didn’t show up for the Saturday evening practice session.

That following Sunday, David was still missing in action.

By this time, even the lead pastor was concerned. He called a few of his leaders to ask them of the whereabouts of the worship leader. But none of them had heard from David, none of them had seen him for a week now. There was cause for concern. The next obvious place to look for David would of course be his workplace. The pastor asked for anyone who knew David’s workmates. When they called a workmate, they heard that he had not been to work for a whole week. He had also not sent word to his employer to indicate why he wasn’t coming to the office.

So a few guys from the church got together and decided to go see whether David would be home. David lived in a middle class estate in Nairobi’s East lands region. He lived in a gated community. Those kinds of apartments that everyone kept to themselves to mind their business. Everyone had his or her parking spot, clearly marked out so that there was minimal interference with personal space.

When they got to his place, they informed the gateman that they were looking for David. The gateman would inform them that he hadn’t seen David for about a week. His car had also not left the premises for the same period of time. When they rang the bell his doorbell, there was no answer and the door was locked. His phone was now off too.

They asked his neighbors of his whereabouts but none of them had seen him. His next-door neighbor though indicated that David’s house emitted a strange odor. The neighbor said that he thought that it was the rotten garbage that David hadn’t taken out for a week now but thought otherwise now that the stench was becoming stronger by the day. So his church-mates asked the caretaker to allow them to access the house using his spare keys. The caretaker obliged.

They got into the house to find everything in the sitting room neatly arranged. David had a knack for neatness. But the house, neat as it was, was engulfed in the heavy stench. They went from one room to the other, till they got to the bedroom. The bedroom door was locked so they flung it open only to be hit by the stench again. This was the epicenter of the stench. They looked in, struggling to hold their breath, only to see the lifeless body of David lying on top of the bed. The body was still fully clothed but with the passing of almost two weeks, it had started decomposing.

A postmortem would later reveal that David had committed suicide. He had taken a lethal dose of poison and effectively, ended his life.

So you see, it is possible to be in a crowd and still be the loneliest of souls. It is possible to look okay to everyone and still be broken in the inside. Even more disturbing, it is possible for one to struggle and hurt to the point of taking his or her life, while life goes on unhindered.

They said that still waters run deep. Pay attention to the stillness in people, it isn’t always an indication of peace. Most still people, on the outside, are souls in turmoil in the inside.