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WHOLE    7'6m?f Salvation: Filling the God-shaped hole

(characters 1 through 5 enter dejected, from all exits, wearing 
T-shirts with a hand-sized large black dot over their 
solar-plexus, they wander slowly and aimlessly around stage, 
changing directions every three steps, one hand covering their 
black dot, while each pair speaks, they confine their movement 
to the front lip of the stage, always facing the audience, but 
still moving and seeking)

1 -- Did you find it yet?

2 -- Find what?

1 -- You know what I'm talking about, something to fill the big 
emptiness. (uncovers dot to show audience, points to it) 

2 -- I thought I was the only one. (uncovers dot)

1 -- Nope. I never met a person yet who doesn't have an 
emptiness like this.

2 -- I tried filling mine with video games.

1 -- Obviously it didn't fill the emptiness. (points)

2 -- Well, it seemed to work for a while. But as soon as I got 
high score, the challenge was gone and the emptiness came back 
again. So, I tried gambling. But that left me empty AND broke.

1 -- I know what you mean. I tried to fill mine with television 
and movies.

2 -- That didn't work either?

1 -- No. Usually I didn't even get out of the movie theater 
before the emptiness came creeping back in. 

3 -- You find anything?

4 -- For the emptiness?

3 -- Yeah.

4 -- No. (uncovers) I tried drugs and alcohol. That seem to work 
for a long time. But I found out that all it was doing was 
anaesthetizing me. As soon as I sobered up, my emptiness was 
still there, PLUS some new problems I caused when I was high. It 
made the emptiness worse than before.

3 -- Me too, (uncovers) but I tried to fill it with 
relationships. I thought "if I have enough friends, boy friends, 
girl friends, it doesn't matter, then my emptiness will go away."

4 -- You've still got the emptiness. (points) Relationships 
obviously didn't work.

3 -- No, so then I tried sex. It seemed to work real well for a 
while. But looking back on it, it was just like your drugs and 
alcohol. It just anaesthetized me for a while. But then, in most 
cases, it ruined what few good relationships I had. The 
emptiness seemed to get worse instead of better.

4 -- Well, keep looking. There's got to be something that will 
fill this emptiness.

5 -- Don't count on it. I even tried what the intellectuals tried.

4 -- What's that?

5 -- Philosophy. I tried to reason away the emptiness, first, by 
denying that it even existed. But that's kind of like denying a 
stone in your shoe. Reality creeps in. (uncovers)

4 -- Still empty, huh?

5 -- Yeah, but I really thought I had it when I stumbled onto 
religion. 

4 -- Religion. Hey, I never tried that.

5 -- Don't bother. It leaves you just as empty as drugs and 
alcohol. No, actually it's worse. It gives you false hope that 
some day the emptiness will be filled, IF you just keep enough 
rules or do enough good deeds. The problem is, if you have a bad 
day and let up a little, you never know if you lost everything 
you worked for. It's hopeless.

(all wander aimlessly for a moment)

6 -- (enters without a black dot on his T-shirt, crosses 
briskly along front lip of stage with hand over solar-plexus)

1 -- How about you? You find anything?

6 -- (throws up hands, revealing lack of dot) Any what?

1 -- (points) Look! He doesn't have the emptiness.

6 -- The what?

1 -- You don't have the emptiness. Like this. (points to own 
black dot)

6 -- Oh, that. Sure I have the emptiness. But it's been filled.

ALL -- (converging) I has? (all ask various questions at once, 
about who, what, where, how long, why and how)

6 -- (confused about who to answer) 

1 -- Wait a minute. This is a hoax, isn't it?

6 -- A hoax? I don't know what you mean.

2 -- You're one of those salesmen, trying to sell something that 
covers up the emptiness for a while.

1 -- Either that, or he's one of the few people in the world who 
were born without all that gnawing emptiness.

ALL -- (repeat their questions more angrily)

6 -- (holds up hands for silence) No, I can assure you that 
everyone in the world is born with the emptiness.

5 -- So, what did you fill it with?

6 -- I filled with the person who made the emptiness.

3 -- I'm sorry, but I tried relationships and they just don't 
fill the emptiness, no matter how initmate they are.

6 -- No, no. You misunderstood me. I didn't say I filled my 
emptiness with relationshipS. I filled it with one relationSHIP.

3 -- Hogwash. I've tried relationships with both boys and girls 
and nothing works.

6 -- Near as I can tell the person who created us created us 
with an emptiness that only he himself could fill.

5 -- You're talking about the God thing. I tried that. I tried 
all the religions and none of them worked. None.

6 -- I'm not talking about a religion. I'm talking about a 
personal relationship with the creator of the universe.

2 -- Next he's going to ask us for donations.

3 -- No, hear him out. I want to hear this. 

5 -- Me too. But, listen, I tried getting closer to God and it 
didn't work. I tried rules and rituals and I tried good works.

6 -- That's your problem.

5 -- What do you mean?

6 -- You never established a relationship with your mother or 
your sister through rules or rituals or good deeds. You're 
just related to them, aren't you?

5 -- I still don't get it. If I can't relate to God by my rules 
or rituals or good deeds, how can I relate to him?

6 -- First of all, you have to know who he is. He's not just 
some cosmic force.

3 -- You're saying that God is a person?

6 -- Yes. And 2000 years ago, he transformed himself into a 
human being...

2 -- He's talking about Jesus.

1 -- He's a Jesus freak.

6 -- You can minimize him and trivialize him all you want to. 
But HE is the only thing that will fill the emptiness within 
you. He created you with that emptiness so that you would always 
long to be in relationship with your creator.

5 -- And you don't have to do good deeds or follow rules to have 
him fill your emptiness?

6 -- No.

4 -- You've got to do something. Nobody gives away anything free 
anymore.

6 -- Yes, there is a cost. First, you have to admit that your 
best attempts to fill the emptiness within you have failed 
miserably and you have to give up the struggle to do it on your 
own. Second, you have to know why Jesus created you with that 
emptiness that only he can fill. He did it so that you will 
serve him and him only.

1 -- Here we go with the recruitment speech.

6 -- Nobody is holding a gun to your head. He's not going to 
force you to serve him. But if you're willing to stop struggling 
on your own and serve the person who created you, the emptiness 
inside will be filled. It's that simple.

2 -- All you have to do is become a slave.

6 -- Hey, everybody is a slave to something or somebody. What 
did you become a slave to in order to fill the emptiness? 
(points to each)

5 -- Philosophy and religion.

1 -- Television and movies.

2 -- Video games and gambling.

3 -- Relationships and sex.

4 -- Drugs and alcohol.

6 -- So, "choose this day whom you will serve".

5 -- Yeah, but, how do we know we won't get taken again?

4 -- Yeah, how do we know this isn't just another cruel slave 
driver, like drugs and alcohol?

6 -- (exiting) Did drugs and alcohol die on the cross to pay for 
your stupid choices?

5 -- (follows) He really did that?!

1 -- (follows) He's got a point there.

3 -- (follows) Hey, tell us more about this relationship.

4 -- (follows) Yeah, I've got a lot of questions about this.

2 -- (follows) Does he really fill the emptiness?

�2013 Bob Snook. Conditions for use:
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