The Book of Light and Ash / No-Go Nation | Days of Ash | Ep 7 & 8

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Kelly Clarkson here with Wayfair. I know holiday magic starts at home, and Wayfair makes it easy. They have everything from Christmas trees and mantel decor to outdoor lighting and inflatables that I'll use year after year. Head to wayfair.com today. Wayfair, every style, every home. The Days of Ash, Episode 7, The Book of Light and Ash.

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By the seventh month, we stopped calling it Collapse. It wasn't sudden anymore. It wasn't surprising. It just was what it was. This is the way things were. The maps had changed. The rules had changed. The weather even felt different, sharper somehow, like the wind carried judgment. But underneath it all, the cracks between the fires and the factions, something else was moving. Not louder, not stronger, just, I don't know, truer. And the ones who could feel it weren't harmed. They were awake. There were moments in sanctuary, quiet and small, that didn't make sense by the old rules. A child lost in the woods for three days, no food, came back laughing and full of stories. A blind man who had been silent since his wife died stood during prayer and quoted Psalm 46 from memory, word for word.

A woman who hadn't slept since the blackout closed her eyes one night by the fire and whispered, He's here. He's here.

We didn't call him miracles, at least not out loud. We just stopped asking questions and we started paying attention. Faith wasn't a sermon anymore or a building. It was how you walked, how you listened, how you stayed soft in a world that had gone so sharp. There was no stage, no offering plates, no applause, just a quiet circle under the trees, a few verses, a few tears, and silence, the kind of silence you didn't want to break.

And we read the Bible differently now. It wasn't just a book of comfort, but it was a survival manual, not for our bodies, but for our souls. There is one passage we kept returning to, Isaiah 30

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In repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength.

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Not resistance, not revenge, not self-righteousness, quietness, trust.

How we were learning to see things so differently now, not just danger, but people. Their eyes told the story now. You could feel it. Those who carried peace and those who carried something else. There was a man who passed through from Atlanta, said all the right things, quoted scripture, but his eyes were cold and calculating. Clara watched him for an hour and then told him gently, there is a place for you, but it's not here.

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So you're not worried about hosting the whole family for the holidays?

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Why would I be? Wayfair had everything I needed to get the house holiday ready.

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What if Mike brings his cheerful dogs?

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My tree has tons of five-star reviews telling me how sturdy it is.

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But what if everyone's plus one brings a plus one?

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We'll see how extendable this extendable table really is, and extra chairs are on the way. Okay.

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What if there's a blizzard and everyone has to sleep over?

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Ready to go with extra bedding and towels.

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From guest-ready essentials to holiday decor you can trust, Wayfair delivers.

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He didn't argue, he just nodded, walked back into the trees without looking back. We started calling this the gift, that knowing the way some people could look at one another and just see, not judge, not accuse, just know. It wasn't magic, it wasn't pride, it was discernment. And those who had it didn't talk about it, they just prayed harder.

But not all faith is the same. Some twisted, some calcified, some grew teeth. In the hills north of us, a group called itself The Risen Sword had taken over an old school house. They said they were there to restore the kingdom. They said America had been judged for its sin, and they were the instrument of cleansing. They wore crosses, they chanted verses, and they carried rifles. They executed two men they accused of sexual impurity. One of them was 16

When we heard about it, Thomas, our sometimes preacher, wanted to act. He said we should warn them. We should send a letter. Clara said Jesus never wrote letters to wolves. So we all prayed instead. Not that they'd fall, but that they'd see that someone somewhere would speak the truth to them and live to do it again. We were really learning faith is not power. Faith is obedience. The Muslim family that stayed with us, Aminah's family, became kind of a mirror. We watched how they prayed, how they fasted, how they wept when they were alone. They didn't believe what we believed, but they honored what was sacred. And in this world, that meant more than agreement. It meant humility.