Chip: “It is a hard pill to swallow, Rob; but after that discussion and the Lord’s straight-forwardness with me, I must say, I would be crazy to continue my relationship with Cindy.”
Rob: “Well, Chip, true bro… true” (while patting Chip on the back). “Remember, you are important to the Lord, you are his son, and His heart is to give you the very best. He doesn’t want you to suffer unnecessarily. I would say that is true Love for His children.”
Chip: “Yes, yes, you are right. I will be spending the next few days in prayer and the word, and thanking Him for sparing me from certain disaster and shipwreck of my life. You know, Rob; I just realized these are huge decisions that can cost us a lifetime of pure hell.”
Rob: “I should say, my brother, I think God showed His love toward you in a very special way tonight. Go home, get some rest, and just be at peace. I know that I am ready for some rest and a hot shower. I hope Beth has put the kids to bed. I do not feel like having a wrestling session with them when I get home. I will talk to you soon!”
I went home and did the same thing as Rob. A good hot shower and a good night’s sleep can make things look very different the next morning. As I drifted off to sleep, my last thoughts were, “I have got to mend my relationship with God, and eventually I will have to face Cindy and tell her I can’t continue our relationship.” Perhaps her delay and putting off our dates may have been the Lord’s doing. Maybe it was his way of giving me a way out. If so, “Thank You, Jesus!”
The next morning the sun was shining, and as I glanced out the window, I took in the view of the leaves of the trees. They had turned to a beautiful array of colors, deep red and yellow. They were falling and covering the ground as if they were hiding some treasure. I opened the door and swish the wind carried a cool brisk wind into the house. I grabbed my jacket, headed to Auto Mart to get a start on ordering parts for all the car repairs and for our store inventory. I also had to make sure our VIP customers had a ride to their offices while we worked on their cars. I was hoping my schedule would move in a slow casual way today, but no such luck. It was Monday morning and customers were lining up to get all there repairs done, and their cars winterized before the cold weather hit. It just depended on what kind of weather surprises Oklahoma’s forecast decided to give us. One day it’s like summertime, and then boom, it drops like a rock, and there can be sleet, rain and total misery for a week straight. No fun, No fun at all! It was a full day, and I was glad to be closing out my computer.
I clocked out for the day and headed for my usual Diner for a bite to eat, but I suddenly heard a voice say, “Don’t go there today, son. Go down the road to Jerry’s Café.” Wow! That’s the first time I heard the Lord like that, but it caused an excitement to go off in my spirit. What could this possibly be about? I didn’t have a clue, but here I go. I opened the door and went in, and a waitress seated me in a booth. She gave me a menu while asking me if I was interested in hearing the specials for the day.
Chip: “Yes!”
Waitress: “We have a meatloaf special with two choices of side dishes, secondly, beef tips smothered in gravy with two sides; and a salad for 99 cents extra.”
Chip: “Which is your favorite?”
Waitress: “The beef tips are my favorite, but I also like the meatloaf. Depends on what mood I’m in.”
Chip: “I’ll have the beef tips with mash potatoes, green beans, salad, and ice tea.”
Chip: I sat there gazing around at the homey environment. She came back fairly quickly with my salad, ice tea, and a newspaper.
Waitress: “This is one of our perks. We provide the daily newspaper while our customers are waiting for their order to be prepared.”
Chip: “Oh, thanks, anything good in it today.”
Waitress: “Yep, they wrote about a local church team called the Ambassadors winning the championship game last night. I heard it was a pretty exciting game.”
Chip: “It was an exciting game, alright. I play for the Ambassadors.”
Waitress: “Really!?”
Chip: “Yes, ma’am! We had to pull out all the stops to beat them. It was a tough game, which made us have to really think on our feet.”
Waitress: “I guess I will have to attend some of those games when they come around again.”
Chip: “Please do! I don’t mean to brag, but even though we are a church team, we are a pretty competitive bunch. We take our game pretty serious.”
Waitress: “Awesome!”
She winked at me and said, “You look like you are in pretty good shape. Oh, by the way, my name is Jimmie Sue.”
I had a weird look on his face. Jimmie Sue giggled.
Jimmie Sue: “Exactly, my thoughts too.”
Chip: “Oh! Oh! Sorry I didn’t mean that in a bad way, please forgive me if I offended you; I just never heard a girl called that name before.”
Jimmie Sue: “Yep! I know. My dad played in a rock and roll band years ago. I think he smoked too much Marijuana. But I really don’t mind because it sets me apart and makes me interesting, I guess.”
She let out another giggle.
Chip: “Well it is nice to meet you. My name is Chip.”
As I looked into her big green eyes, she flipped her strawberry blonde bangs to one side on her forehead. She had this innocence about her. I was guessing she was about 25-26 years old; but what do I know. I could be wrong. It appears to be my specialty lately. I was wrong about Cindy, and Jimmy Sue could be a kid, for all I know. Then I heard this voice again, “she is not a kid, but she going to be your helpmate”. My heart just about leaped out of my chest, and I said out loud, “What did you say?” I must have responded to the voice quiet loudly because the couple sitting down the way from my table looked at me strangely and began to talk in a hushed low voice to each other. I asked the Lord if He could repeat that again.
Chip: “I know I haven’t been your favorite lately, not coming to you about my relationships with women to begin with.”
The Lord immediately said, “My son, I love you, and you will never stop being my favorite. She is the woman I chose for you; she will be your helpmate”.
Chip: “Ok, should I ask her out?”
God: “No, wait on me. I will tell you when. Be at peace. She is not going anywhere. She is working her way through college and needs this job. You just come here to eat your meals, and it will all work out. I will work this out in my own time and in my own way.”
Chip: “Yes, Lord, I am glad you are taking ahold of this part of my life.”
God: “I want you to spend time with me; and I promise you Chip, you won’t be disappointed that you did. But you have some things you need to do first.”
Chip: “Yes, Lord. I need to set Cindy free and free she will be.”
Chip: But little did I know what would transpire, concerning Cindy. I ate my dinner and went home with a new and fresh outlook on life.
Chip: “I must say, Lord, you show up right on time, every time. I was beginning to feel like it was a lost cause, you know; me finding a wife, that is.”
As I said that, deep down in his spirit, I had this impression that I needed to attend the meetings that Rob and Beth were attending on the Love of God. I wanted to call Rob, and shout about this new found hope and the message from God; but for some reason I just felt to keep it under wraps for now. Besides, Rob may think I am just nuts. After all, I haven’t had such a good record in my judgment of women so far. No, I am just going to leave it alone, and see how things roll out. I will see Rob Saturday when we go for our workout session, and I’ll ask him about Pastor Mike’s meetings then.
I grabbed my Bible and began to study over the scriptures in I Corinthians 13, and I, II, and III John, that Rob shared in their discussion after the game. He thought he would get a head start by reading and meditating on the Love scriptures. “Wow!” I voiced, looking at the clock, it was already 9:00pm. I had been at it for about 2 hours. It was time to take a shower, and watch a few minutes of the news. As I stood under the hot shower, I begin to sing some words of praise to the Lord, and to thank Him for my new found hope; I thanked Him for extending His Love toward me in such a surprising and loving way. Then I begin to tell Him how good He was, and how thankful I am to have a Father like Him. I had a busy week, but I didn’t mind because I seem to have new springs in my step. The week seemed to fly by, and even though I had to call Cindy and stop the relationship, I had a wonderful new strength that came into my heart after my spiritual awakening because of my encounter with God concerning my future.
The weekend was full of things I needed to accomplish. I needed to get my lawn spruced up by raking the dead leaves and bundling them for trash pickup. I also went to the gym down the street and worked out Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours. After that, I like to frequent our local Christian Bookstore to find some sound tracks to sing by. I like to be prepared, just in case Pastor Mike calls on me to sing during the Church services. Plus, I needed to take some time to listen to them and practice singing with them. I also was looking forward to dinner at Jerry’s Café so I could talk with my future wife Jimmie Sue. I was thankful it was Saturday, which left more time to linger and to talk with to her. Our conversation was absolutely wonderful and refreshing. The more we talked, the more we felt relaxed and open about things we shared. She was funny, carefree, and sensible, which made me feel like I could share my deepest secrets with her. I found myself stuck to the chair, but her boss waved at her to get busy.
Chip: “I am sorry, Jimmie Sue, I hope all is well with your boss, and that I am not hindering you from your work.”
Jimmie Sue: “No, it is my fault, not yours. And besides, he knows I am a hard worker, and he knows getting to know our customers is worth a little stop and chat at times. Believe me, we all get involved with our customers, it seemingly can’t be helped, because some of them come here with all kinds of problems and are eager to share. I have ended up being a shoulder to cry on many times.”
Chip: “Well, I am going to leave. Not because I want too (While sending her a warm smile as I chuckled.) But I’ll be back later for some pie.”
Jimmie Sue: “I am looking forward to seeing you again”
She gave me a smile and a wink with those big beautiful green eyes.
I drove back home to relax for a bit. I stretched out on my sofa, and watched a little TV. I closed my eyes, and thought how blessed I was to have such a good life; a life that I could feel God’s peace and experience His serenity all around me. No money in the entire world could buy that. And, just think, it is free for the taking if folks would just give God half of chance to live in them and become their Father. I decided to practice my new sound track; and afterwards, I would go back to Jerry’s for my pie. But first I would call and see if I could get a hold of Cindy. I swallowed hard because thinking about it caused a lump in my throat. I dialed her cell phone number, but it went immediately to her voice mail. I left a message for her to call me. I figured she is no doubt out with someone else, but that was okay. In fact, that thought gave me a little comfort because she was pursuing what she needed in her life. My thoughts went immediately back to thinking about Jimmie Sue. I couldn’t get enough of seeing her and having our talks. I am pretty sure she feels the same way about me.