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God in my Corner – A Spiritual Memoir – George Foreman

TRANSPORTED INTO DARKNESS

Instantly I was transported into a deep, dark void, like a bottomless pit. If there's a place called "nowhere," this was it. I was suspended in emptiness, with nothing over my head or under my feet. I lost my perception of direction and didn’t know which way was up and which was down.

This was a place of total isolation, cut off from everything and everyone. It can only be described as a vacant space of extreme hopelessness, like being dropped in the Atlantic Ocean with nothing to grab on to, a thousand miles from the shore. I knew I was dead, and this wasn't heaven. I was terrified, knowing I had no way out.

Sorrow beyond description engulfed my soul, more than anyone could ever imagine. If you multiplied every disturbing and frightening thought that you've ever had during your entire life, that wouldn't come close to the panic I felt. Total darkness surrounded me. I was drifting like an astronaut cut off from his spacecraft all alone in the complete darkness of outer space-but with no planets, moons, or stars as light or reference points. Even that would be better than where I was.

Although I couldn’t see anyone, I was aware of other people in this terrible place. I was unable to contact them, because in this void where there was no light, I sensed that relationships didn't exist.

The place reeked with the putrid smell of death. It's difficult to describe the awful, foul stench. If you've ever been to a dump yard and smelled the decaying odors, just multiply that stomach-wrenching smell a thousand times. You can't forget it. The offensive odor was so revolting that I still vividly remember it to this day.

Everything that I ever worked for-my money, cars, and houses- meant nothing to me anymore. What good were they to me here? No earthly fortune can satisfy someone who is trapped in solitary confinement and can’t see anything.

It was utter darkness. This place was a vacuum without light, love, or happiness. I was so frightened that I didn’t want even my worst enemies to experience it. No one ever could have done anything to me that was so bad that I wished them to come here. I couldn’t compare my feelings of hopelessness to any earthly experience.

It wasn’t like a temporary jail sentence, where one day I’d be let out. I couldn’t say, "This is the worst place imaginable, but I can get out of here tomorrow, or next week, or next month." In that place, I had no hope for tomorrow-or of ever getting out. I truly thought that this was the end of my life, and I saw-too late- that I had missed what life was meant to be about.

As that realization dawned on me, I got mad; I mean, I was furious that I had fallen for the devil's lies and deceptions. I screamed with every ounce of strength in me, "I don't care if this is death. I still believe there’s a God!"

Instantly, what seemed to be like a gigantic hand reached down and snatched me out of the terrifying place. Immediately I was back inside my body in the dressing room. I couldn’t believe it; I wasn’t in darkness anymore! Even though I had lost all hope of escaping, God had mercifully let me out!