TOTAL PRAISE
There was Chelsea in her black skirt and white blouse. Her bright smile and makeup lit up the room. Her short haircut was shining too. She doesn’t usually look like she probably feels, and that’s for sure. She smiled as we approached her, and she seated us on the left-hand side of the church in the 15th row. Close to the side door.
Acts is a huge church. The teleprompter is useful so you can see the pulpit a lot better. The choir is bigger than the choir at my family’s church, BeeBee Memorial. They got down when they sang Total Praise. We stood up and worshipped the Lord with the rest of the saints. A guest pastor filled in for Pastor Bob. I didn’t write his name down ’cause I wasn’t sure if I was going to take notes.
“Turn with me in your bibles to Proverbs 13:12; hold your finger there, and turn to Psalms 39:7. When you’ve tagged both texts, say Amen.”
Was he going to excite me? I was upset that Pastor Bob wasn’t there. I sat back and decided to praise God with Najah.
Lord knows I needed my blessings because I was starting to feel emotional, trying to focus on my worship experience with thoughts of Drew stirring in my mind. My tear ducts were ready to pour out an untimely cry. “Where did my joy just go?” I thought.
I closed my eyes so I could pray for myself. I felt like I was coming unglued. My heart felt heavier and took a few deep breaths. As I opened my wet eyes, Najah handed me a note that read:
Let the word of Christ dwell.
I looked at her with my best half-smile and nodded in agreement as I patted my cheeks dry with my fists.
The guest pastor started his sermon with a famous question asked by Langston Hughes, “What happens to a dream deferred?”
I pulled out my pen and pad.
His sermon was titled “Hold on to Your Hope”.
“Hope fuels a dream saints,” he continued. “We have these disappointments from our past, so we stop loving, trusting and stop believing because the last hope you had let you down. No matter how dark the situation seems, hope says keep on. A longing hope fulfilled is a tree of life. Seasons change, and the leaves have to fall, but guess what. It will blossom again. How do I hold on when my hope is failing? Well I’m glad you asked saints, Hold on from the Lord. When it runs low, run back to the Lord. Our hope is from Him, because God is still able.”
“Amen,” the congregation sang.
As Pastor Claybon Lea wrapped his wonderful sermon up, he gave us two more scriptures to read later on in the week, Psalms 146:5 and 147:11.
“Go to bed in hope and wake up in hope.”
Everybody jumped to their feet and applauded the pastor. I felt so much better, and my joy came back to rest inside of my soul again.
As the offering was being collected, I wrote on the back of Najah’s note:
I will release my stress through praise.
She nodded and stretched her arms out and we hugged. It was just what I needed.
After service, we met Chelsea in the parking lot.
“Were you surprised, girl?”
“Yes, and I’m so glad y’all here. They didn’t come to church today or I just didn’t see them.”
“Who cares about them? We want to make sure you alright.”
“I am ok, or I’ll be ok.”
“Hey, why don’t you come to the house. We having fish with the family.”
“Ok, times like this is when you need to be around the family. We all we got!”
We started laughing.
We parted ways from the parking lot and headed to my parents’ house. Najah and I got back in her car. As we headed to the freeway, I was filling her in on the event that took place outside of Hilton Garden Inn yesterday.
Najah was laughing and hitting the steering wheel trying to picture us outside acting out like we did. She couldn’t believe Chelsea slapped Greg and threw water on him. We laughed till we both were crying, but knew that there was no way Chelsea was going to be able to still attend Acts if the happy new couple was going to keep going there too.
We pulled up to my parents’ around 1:40 pm and Derrick’s silver Acura was already parked in the driveway. I told Najah she could park right next to Derrick because both of my parents’ cars were probably in the garage.
Jordyn’s orange Beetle was parked at the curbside, with the sunroof cracked. I dug in my purse to get the door key for my parent’s house. After I found them, I got out and followed Najah to the front door. We spoke to everyone when we found them in the den, all sitting on the couch watching the playoffs on TV. We all exchanged kisses. The aroma of fish filled the air.
I kicked off my shoes and pulled my flip flops out of my purse. Najah and I sat on the bar stools and watched the game with everyone.
Mama got up to set the table. That’s when I told her that Chelsea was joining us for dinner. We followed her into the dining room so we could fill Jordyn and Mama in about yesterday’s events.
Mama and Jordyn were happy for Kalena and Todd. Jordyn was wondering how many people would be in the wedding, because she knew she would be the one to do all the hair and makeup.
“Well, you could hire some help if it gets to be too much, or you can include your other stylists to help you,” Mama said.
“Yeah, it’s definitely too early to worry about that now,” I said.
“I know, I’m just saying, ya know a wedding can be a bit much sometimes depending on the bride.”
I told them the story about Drew’s phone call.
“The next time he calls, you’ll forgive him and say you’ll be going to visit him and that will be that.” Jordyn announced.
Mama couldn’t believe it.
“Journee, believe God. Maybe God is calling you out of this situation. I know he is your first love and y’all been through a lot over the years, but don’t hurt yourself by letting other people hurt you.”
I recorded that statement to my memory. Mamas always have a way of saying things that really make you think. Najah was excited about what Mama would have to say about Chelsea’s story from yesterday.
After we gave her and Jordyn the play-by-play, they cracked up. I reenacted all of Chelsea’s movements. Derrick was listening to us and he and my dad were cracking up too.
“If that was me, I would have spit a big loogie on Chelsea. And why his new chick didn’t want to fight her after she slapped him?” Derrick asked, still laughing.
“I was there, duh?” I cracked.
“He should have called the police and had her butt arrested,” he said.
Time went on. Dad kept asking where Chelsea was because he didn’t want to start eating dinner without her.
Najah said she would call her. She grabbed her phone from her purse and dialed Chelsea’s cell phone number. No answer.
Najah left a message telling her that we were waiting for Her, and Papa Bell was ready to eat. She put her cell phone back in her purse.
“We like our fish hot from the frying pan,” Derrick joked.
We laughed and started picking our seating arrangements.
“It’s time to eat,” Pops said.
Mama led the prayer. She gave thanks to God for this fellowship and thanked him for his tender mercies. Then she asked God to keep his hand and love around Chelsea.