Every Shelf in a Grocery Store holds a potential nightmare!

Holiday Horror. Every year its the same dark foreboding feeling. I'm walking through a dimly lit grocery aisle. I look down at the list in my hand:

• Ground Turkey
• Apples
• broccoli
• onion
• cinnamon

It was a short list, just the staples, but I wanted to make sure I was ready for the weekend. It was difficult to see items on the shelves as it was getting progressively darker.  I pulled out my cell phone and used the flashlight app to see better. That is when I noticed the form shuffling up the aisle towards me. Food Zombie.

A chill ran up my spine.  I tried to turn around but I was frozen. It shuffled its bloated pasty carcass behind a loaded grocery cart. I gasped as the contents became visible in my light.  Twinkies, candy corn, cookies, chips, dip candy bars and...beer.

The cart was overflowing and the gastrointestinal noises I was hearing weren't coming from the food zombie. They were coming from ME!  The closer it got the louder my stomach got! Cold sweat poured from my skin. I began trembling and then I felt compelled to reach out and take the poisoned treat the food zombie was trying to hand me.

I reached deep down inside, using all my power all my strength to turn my cart and run in the opposite direction. AGGGH! I screamed as the contents of the list in my hand changed into  Twinkies, candy corn, cookies, chips, dip, candy bars and...beer. AGGGH! I screamed again as i looked down and saw that my cart was no longer empty but instead filled to overflowing with twinkies, candy corn, cookies, chips, dip, candy bars and...beer.

It was harder to push the cart. It was so heavy and I was gasping for breath. My head was pounding, I felt a malaise come over me and I just wanted to sit on the floor and eat.

"NO!" I said defiantly. " I will not give in. I have come SO FAR and lost all this weight. I WILL NOT do you hear me food Zombie? I WILL NOT BREAKDOWN!

I began to feel funny, heavier, my jeans tight. Then the button popped on my shirt. Then another and another until, I too was a bloated pasty food zombie pushing a poison laden cart down a dimly lit aisle.

Inside this carcass, my mind was screaming as I saw my fat stubby fingers unwrap a snickers bar and stuff it into my mouth. My inside voice screamed and choked as my body acted on its own. I began to rage in my mind. The Skinny mini me began punching, kicking, clawing. Anything to get out of this bloated prison. Horrible growling noises echoed in my ears as I realized that the noises I had heard earlier were my inner me, sensing the change, was trying to get out before I blew up.

With one final push I was able to burst out of the body. Candy wrappers, soda pop, chips and half eaten deli meat sandwiches exploded out, covering the aisle with slick gooey slime. I lept over the cart and started running. Trying to find some water, a protein bar, ANYTHING to give me the strength.

More food zombies! Each one with something in its outstretched hand as if to stuff me again. Soon the store was full of shuffling lifeless joyless food zombies, the unhealthed. Shuffling mindlessly through the store filling their carts and their mouths with any and everything just to satisfy an insatiable flesh. There were SO many of them. All of them heading directly at me. I jumped up on the shelf trying to find a way out as they all gathered around reaching up with one hand and offering junkfood with the other.

Every aisle, every check out lane and even the parking lot was full of the mindless eaters. I could see no way out. Every door, every exit every conceivable exit was blocked. I started to panic. What do I do? I cried out,

Father, Lord God in Heaven, help me!

From the corner of my eye I spotted a shiny red gleam. I turned towards the beacon of hope. A bright shiny juicy Red Delicious Apple! I screamed for joy as the food zombies moaned in agony. I lept across to the next shelf and then the next until I was next to the produce department. The apple was surrounded by food zombies. The lone apple, totally ignored by the sad shuffling horde of the UNHEALTHED called to me. Mustering every memory of every Bruce Lee Kung Fu movie I had ever seen, I lept, flipped, rolled and flew over the apple, grabbing it as I zipped by, landing on an empty produce shelf. Every food zombie in the store was now in the produce section. Its shelves filled with rotting neglected vegetables, fruits, nuts except for the lone red apple in my hand.

The bloated carcasses extended their shaking hands as if they wanted to knock that red juicy piece of hope out of my grasp. To drag me down and make me one them again. I raised it up over my head and shouted.

"Grace and Strength Lifestyle!" then, taking the apple to my mouth I bit down hard and chewed slowly to savor its lifegiving burst of flavor and energy. I could feel the vitamins rushing into my body as the antioxidants flowed through my blood. I was renewed.

One by one, the unhealthed horde shuffled back into their malaise, clearing a path to the door. As I made my way out, I saw a familiar sight. A lone customer with a list in hand, surrounded by food zombies. I heard the scream, I heard the food zombies moan. I had a decision to make, leave and save myself or go back into the fray and rescue this lost soul. I paused. I prayed and then turned away.

With the door behind me, I wondered if I had made the right choice. Self preservation is such a strong impulse. The will to survive. Survival of the fittest. After all I had seen the apple, I knew of its power it helped me escape the trap these unhealthed were eternally shuffling through. I heard the shopper scream.

The door was farther away. The screams were louder. Chills ran up my spine. I hope this was the right thing to do. no, I KNOW it was the right thing to do.

"Take my hand. I will lead you out. You don't have to become a food zombie. The shopper smiled and together we started to make our way out. The power of the apple was fading, I felt a cold lifeless bloated  joy stealing hand on my shoulder.

"CLIMB!" I said. We both bolted up to the top of the shelves.

"Hey, is that an apple?" the shopper said. Smiling, I turned towards the produce department.

"C'mon!" I said

"Wait, where are we going?" the shopper yelled out.

Pointing to the apple, red gleaming and beckoning. I looked the shopper in the eyes.

"To Freedom" I exclaimed as we lept to claim our victory!

Now THAT'S a Grace and Strength Lifestyle happy ending!

Pray Seek Believe Receive

David Michael Rose

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* Individual results may vary.