I locked the bedroom door, hoping he wouldn't try to break it down, hoping my wife and I could survive another night with our son across the hall.

We had called the police. But they said there was nothing we could do unless he hurt himself or us. So far he'd only broken a television but not any bones.

From down the hall, he screamed at us. "You're trying to kill me! You're trying to kill me in my sleep!"

I cracked the door open. My wife looked over at me from across the bed, as if she were about to be taken by an intruder.

I faced my son. His eyes were glazed over. He stared at me, unblinking. His body stiffened. "I have to die five times. Five times!"

I dared ask. "What happens after the fifth time?"

He looked at me with a smirk, not a grin. "You already know. YOU know!"

No, I don't, son. I don't understand. We love you. We've loved you before you were born. And from the moment I set eyes on you in the hospital, I never stopped loving you."

"I have to die five times! And then I'm dead for good. I'm never coming back."

But my son was already gone. There was nothing his mother or I could do to call him back from the deep cavernous place where the true soul of my son was lost. "This isn't who you are son. Don't listen to the voices in your head."

To him the voices were as real as the sound a mockingbird makes on cool summer day. There was no reasoning to be had. Thankfully, that night, he locked his door and didn't come out until the next day when the court order from his doctor came through.

This time when the police showed up at our door, they went up the stairs to him. He pleaded with them. "I just want to stay home. I promise I will take my medicine."

Mom and I sat in the living room holding hands, praying. As he was escorted out the door and away to the hospital, she cried. "You don't have to cuff him. Please! He's going with you."

We watched the police put him in the back of the patrol car. My wife sobbed until the tears pooled. "Why, why? Why would God do this? He was healthy young man."

I used to think, I had all the answers. I could always find a verse to give us strength, but this was one wave of heartbreak about to capsize our faith. We were drowning in sea of misery and doubt.

***
For several days, our son refused his medication. Then one day we got a call. "I love you, Mom. I miss you and Dad. I miss our home. I know I need the medication. They said if things work out, I could be home in a few days."

Tears squirted from my eyes and stained my cheeks. I listened in to the call with my wife. She said, "I love you son. That's the best news ever."

"Oh, and could you ask Dad to bring me my Bible Book of Promises and my glasses?"

"Yes, son. I love you. I miss you. I will bring it to you first chance I get." I was out the door, before my wife had hung up the phone.

Our son was lost but he found his way back to us.

To be continued... Ephesians 3:20 "Now unto him who able to do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think...