CHAPTER 20
“Therefore, through Him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise.”
Hebrews 13:15
Blake parked his car in front of Nikki's house. There were several cars already there. As he got out, he heard gospel music leaking out of the open windows. A car pulled up behind his and Trina waved at him. He waited for her to get out. She came and grabbed him in a big hug, saying, “Blake sweetie, how've you been doing?”
“I'm good, Trina, how about you?”
“The Lord just keeps dumping blessings I don't deserve, right on top of me. So, you've been talking pretty regular to Miss Nikki, I hear.” Winking she said, “she likes you pretty good.”
“Well, I like her real well, too. She's a very special person.”
“So, are you going to ask her out? I think she'd go with you.”
“Ms. Trina, we already have a date scheduled...in May.”
Trina stopped her walking up toward the house and turned to face Blake. “May? Are you messing with me?”
Blake really didn't want to bring up Elaine right now. He was still stinging with the feelings of missing her. To avoid talking about it, he said, “The timing was Nikki's idea.”
Trina went up the porch steps saying, “I'm going to have to have a talk with that girl. She can't let a good one like you get away.”
The front door was open and they could see several faces chatting away happily. Trina stepped through the door saying loudly, “Hi everybody!” A chorus of voices responded with, “Hi Trina!”, “Well look what the cat dragged in!”, “Blake, welcome!' and “Hi, guys!”
Nikki had described this evening as a celebration of what the Lord was doing in the life of Brittany, her sister. The whole feeling was completely different than the last time he had been here. At his last visit to Nikki's home, everybody had been very serious, knowing there was work to be done. In contrast, this really felt like a celebration.
As Blake scanned the room, he saw many of the people that had been here to pray a few weeks ago, along with a few unfamiliar faces. Blake was looking for Nikki, but she was not in the room. Trina and Blake were quickly directed to the kitchen to get snacks. In the kitchen they found an impressive array of snack foods. At the table was Sabrina, Nikki's niece, her hair in exceedingly cute pigtails, and Nikki leaning over her setting a plate of snacks within her reach.
Nikki looked up. Seeing Blake, she quickly came to him to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, saying, “Thank you so much for coming.” and greeted Trina with a fond hug.
Sabrina said, “Hi, Ms. Trina. You want a cookie?” Holding out a half-eaten cookie, while holding another one in her other hand.
Nikki speaks to her, “Sabrina, say hello to Mr. Blake.” gesturing toward Blake.
“Hi, Mr. Blake. Did you help pray my Mommy all better, too?”
“Yes, Sabrina, I have been praying for your Mommy. I've been praying for you, too. Has it been OK while your mommy has been gone?”
“I have fun with Cody and Becca, but I hope Mommy comes home soon.”
Nikki explained, “Cody and Becca are her cousins. Most of the time she has been staying at their house.”
Blake started gathering a few snacks with Sabrina providing guidance on which things were good and which ones were yucky. Blake took her advice on the cookies, but took some guacamole against her advice. Trina grabbed a drink and went back into the living room.
Nikki asked Blake, “So, are things any better at work?”
“No, it is really dragging me down. I hate to go into the office, and I can't get it out of my mind when I'm not there. It is just eating at me like a cancer. I'm afraid it is making me a grouch.”
Nikki frowned, “That’s sad. I had hoped it would get better. I was praying for you and thinking about your dilemma. I know that you want to do God's will, but when you aren't hearing from him, you don't know what to do. I know it is always hardest to hear God's voice on something you have a strong opinion on. Right now you want to escape from your job and it even seems like the most reasonable answer, but if you did have God's quiet whisper saying, 'Blake, you need to stay and minister to your co-workers.' then it would be immensely easy to dismiss that as another weirdo idea that flashed through your mind.”
Nikki continued, “With that in mind, I was thinking about the Biblical examples of people being guided by God. I got thinking about Paul as he made his journeys telling people about Christ. I don't think God told him every turn to make. Paul used the mind that God gave him, but also remained open to the voice of God. There were several times that God changed his mind, telling him to go someplace or not to go to another.”
Blake asked, “So, your saying that if I have listened for God and he didn't tell me not to go find another job, then I should use my own judgment?”
“Well,” said Nikki, “the tough part is that you have a strong personal opinion and that might cloud your listening ability. I think you need to be positive that you have given God a fair chance. I think you should be able to honestly pray, 'not my will, but thine' over the situation. Then, if you still haven't heard from God, you can start following your judgment, but be prepared to hear Him all along the process, because you never know when He will have a specific opinion.”
“I have been trying hard to have that 'not my will, but thine' attitude about the job. That's why I am one of the only ones without a resume on the street.”
Nikki replied, “Well, don't let not hearing from God be an excuse for inactivity. A person can't say, 'Because God didn't tell me what to eat today, I'm not going to eat.', that would be silly. God communicates and guides us in what He considers important, but His idea of 'important' rarely aligns with our idea of 'important'.”
“That's a really interesting concept.” said Blake. “That is exactly what I was doing. I was taking no action, because God hadn't told me what to do...”
Sabrina interrupted with, “Oh-oh please.”
Although Blake was baffled by the meaning of the utterance, Nikki got the plate of Oreos and let Sabrina get one, saying to her, “OK, this is your last cookie.”
Anton came in the kitchen and spoke to Nikki, “Mac and Kelly are here, I think that's everybody.”
Nikki spoke to Sabrina and Blake, “Let's go out in the living room and tell everybody about how your Mommy is doing, then you can come back and finish your cookie.”
Sabrina said, “OK, I done now.”
They went into the living room and got everybody's attention. Somebody turned off the music. Nikki said, “Thanks to all of you for coming. The main purpose for this get-together is to celebrate what God has been doing in the life of my sister Brittany. I know that each of you have been praying for her and I am very grateful for that. A little over two weeks ago, while a group of us were gathered for the express purpose of praying for her, God, in his incredible mercy, convicted her of the wrongness of the path she was on. Our prayer time was interrupted by her showing up at the door in tears of repentance.”
Nikki continued, “The next morning we went out to the Elijah Center up in the mountains. They are a very good, Christ-centered addiction treatment center. Brittany went in there with a little fear, but almost an excitement about the possibility of being freed of her addiction. The staff at the center has kept me updated every couple of days. We have been thrilled to hear how open she has been to the center's actions, even in the midst of her body going through terrible withdrawals. But, the most exciting part has been how she has sought the Lord. She has exhibited a huge appetite for all things Jesus. She has read Scripture, prayed and asked about a thousand questions about the Lord.
“Then, this last Wednesday, came the most exciting news of all. In an unusual exception to protocol, they allowed Brittany to call me herself to share the news: she was wanting to be baptized.” Nikki began to tear up, but continued to share, “It was her desire to make a visible sign of the commitment she had made to
the Lord the night before. Brittany's greatest desire was to make Jesus Lord of her life. She never wanted drugs to rule her life again, she wanted and needed a good Master, both for herself and for little Sabrina here. God had done an incredible work in her. This kind of turn-around was barely even imaginable a month ago. I am so very, very grateful to the Lord for His work, for His mercy, His love and His power.”
There was a chorus of “Thank you Lord”, “Hallelujah”, “Praise the Lord” and “Amen” throughout the room.
Nikki said, “God is so good”.
The people responded with, “All the time.”
“And all the time,” said Nikki.
“God is good.” said everybody in the room. This lead immediately into the singing of a series of praise choruses. Everybody was having a great time giving God glory and thanks.
After a time Nikki announced, “By the way, we have something else to celebrate, tomorrow is Blake's birthday.”
Blake was completely surprised that she knew he was turning 34 tomorrow. It then occurred to him that he knew her birthday was in December, so maybe they had discussed birthdays.
Steve said, “Well, happy birthday, Blake. What are you going to be doing to celebrate?”
“I don't know if it is exactly a celebration,” replied Blake, “but I when I leave here I am headed to a prayer retreat with folks from my church.”
Unlike Blake, many of these people had participated in prayer retreats before. The conversation was now off on a new track.
CHAPTER 21
“I will listen to what God will say; surely the Lord will declare peace to His people...” Psalm 85:8