“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
Lauren sent Marcus a text message: “Dr. Pulau 2:15.” Marcus called her back. “Okay, 2:15. Where do I turn off Beckham?” “It’s left off Beckham as you go south, right after the Golden Panda.” “Right, I remember now, see you there, I love you.” “I love you too Marcus.”
But that was later today. Marcus was at work at his new job: Full Time Job-Seeker. He had leads, but they led to dead ends. So he called Colby, his former boss, and asked if he knew anything. Colby sent him to Athens to talk to a guy at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. They needed a guy to monitor conditions in the aquariums and take care of the grounds. If he did well there, he might go for a little training and he could work in the hatchery where they raise bass. It wasn’t ideal in the long term but it would do for now. He liked being outside and he fished the lakes in East Texas all his life. Maybe this would work until he got something long term.
He prayed as he headed back to Tyler on 31, casting his anxieties on the Lord. Anxieties about finding a job, Lauren’s anxieties about work, anxieties about a healthy baby. He finished with “I trust you Lord” and turned on his iPod. He scrolled through to a series on prayer he downloaded from a preacher in Duluth, Minnesota. He listened to a sermon on praying according to God’s will as he cruised back into Tyler, very careful to slow down through Brownsboro. They have a speed trap set up there don’t you know.
He met Lauren in the waiting room at 2:16. He sat down next to her and held her hand. She asked him how the interview went in Athens. He told her the hatchery produces 3 to 4 million Florida largemouth bass fingerlings every year and they need a babysitter. She laughed. Kind of a forced, nervous laugh. Marcus squeezed her hand. “Everything’s okay. I prayed on the way up here.” Lauren gave a half smile and looked down at her abdomen and squeezed his hand in return. What they weren’t talking about was Lauren’s mom who had three miscarriages before Eddie was born. And Lauren was thinking that girls take after their moms. And this was their first baby…
The door opened and the nurse called out, “Lauren Redding.” Marcus stood up and took her hand and they went on back. She was nervous. They took her blood pressure twice. They went over the fundamentals: folic acid, weight gain, emotional changes. Lauren was good about exercise. At lunch she walked around the TJC campus with three other girls. The nurse took them to a room. Lauren jumped up on the table. Marcus jumped up next to her. They waited. They talked about work. It was going well for her, as usual. Today the nursing department was in a teleconference and they lost their connection midway through. They called Lauren. She had it fixed in five minutes. Marcus shook his head in admiration, “Everything you touch turns to gold.”
Dr. Pulau knocked on the door. Pleasant chitchat. He asked questions. Lauren gave the right answers. Then he told her to ease on back and he got out the heart monitor. He warmed the ultrasound jelly in his hands and spread it on her belly. He pressed the wand against her side. He rolled it back and forth. They heard static. After a long thirty seconds, a heartbeat. The doctor looked at them and smiled. Tears.
Marcus squeezed Lauren’s hand. She whispered to him, “Psalm 139.”
More about Marcus Redding’s journey of faith next week.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Marcus Redding Hears a Sound
Some people can’t stand the sound of fingernails on the chalkboard. Marcus Redding can’t stand the sound of a car coming to a screeching stop.
Last Wednesday night he heard that sound. They were coming home from evening Bible study. They had to turn left at the intersection to get into their apartment complex. They got in just under the yellow light. The oncoming traffic was stopped, but there was another car coming up behind them that was not paying attention and had to slam on the brakes. It stopped in time and didn’t hit anybody, but the squealing sound triggered a flashback.
Back on that sunny spring day when Marcus got his driver’s license, cruising down 346 and the setting sun hit him in the face, when he overcorrected and crossed over the yellow line, the other car had only a fraction of a second to put on the brakes, and that was the last sound Marcus heard before they crashed.
When they pulled up to their parking place, Marcus was almost frozen behind the steering wheel. Lauren knew what was going on. She reached over and rubbed his neck, “Come on Marcus, let’s go inside.” “I’m okay,” he lied, “I’m fine.” But he wasn’t fine. He couldn’t sleep. And whenever he did fall asleep he had nightmares. He dreamed Lauren had a wreck. She survived but they lost the baby. Marcus woke up, yelling her name. Startled awake, she saw him sitting up in bed, breathing hard.
Marcus felt helpless. Like his thoughts were controlling him instead of him controlling his thoughts. Lauren wanted him to go to the doctor to get something to help him sleep. She just wanted him to rest and be at peace. It was enough stress being out of work and not being able to find a job, and now this. But pills? Marcus had mixed a few pills with his Jack Daniels back in the dark years. Taking pills to dull his pain would be for him like having a drink. He couldn’t do it. He knew where that would take him.
About an hour later Lauren had drifted off to sleep again, but Marcus was still awake with his thoughts. He slipped out of bed and went out to the living room to turn on the TV. They had left it on PBS and they were doing an in-depth report from Haiti about men who had lost their wives in the earthquake and were left to take care of their children on their own. Poor, without work, traumatized. It put his situation in perspective, but he still hurt.
He got up to make a sandwich. On the way into the kitchen he noticed Lauren had left a Bible open to Psalm 139 on the kitchen table. She did that all the time. Leave him something to read in case he had trouble sleeping. She stuck a yellow post it note on the pages with an arrow that pointed to the title “Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart.” He read the psalm. Part of verse 18 jumped out at him, “I awake, and I am still with you.”
So he put those two together: the men in Haiti and God’s constant presence. He read Psalm 139 again, not reading it but making it his own prayer, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” Then he read it again and prayed for the men in Haiti, “O Lord, you have searched them and known them!” He prayed their tragedy would cause them to turn to God, since they wouldn’t find that kind of lasting help anywhere else.
And then he realized he needed to do the same thing.
More about Marcus Redding’s journey of faith next week.
Last Wednesday night he heard that sound. They were coming home from evening Bible study. They had to turn left at the intersection to get into their apartment complex. They got in just under the yellow light. The oncoming traffic was stopped, but there was another car coming up behind them that was not paying attention and had to slam on the brakes. It stopped in time and didn’t hit anybody, but the squealing sound triggered a flashback.
Back on that sunny spring day when Marcus got his driver’s license, cruising down 346 and the setting sun hit him in the face, when he overcorrected and crossed over the yellow line, the other car had only a fraction of a second to put on the brakes, and that was the last sound Marcus heard before they crashed.
When they pulled up to their parking place, Marcus was almost frozen behind the steering wheel. Lauren knew what was going on. She reached over and rubbed his neck, “Come on Marcus, let’s go inside.” “I’m okay,” he lied, “I’m fine.” But he wasn’t fine. He couldn’t sleep. And whenever he did fall asleep he had nightmares. He dreamed Lauren had a wreck. She survived but they lost the baby. Marcus woke up, yelling her name. Startled awake, she saw him sitting up in bed, breathing hard.
Marcus felt helpless. Like his thoughts were controlling him instead of him controlling his thoughts. Lauren wanted him to go to the doctor to get something to help him sleep. She just wanted him to rest and be at peace. It was enough stress being out of work and not being able to find a job, and now this. But pills? Marcus had mixed a few pills with his Jack Daniels back in the dark years. Taking pills to dull his pain would be for him like having a drink. He couldn’t do it. He knew where that would take him.
About an hour later Lauren had drifted off to sleep again, but Marcus was still awake with his thoughts. He slipped out of bed and went out to the living room to turn on the TV. They had left it on PBS and they were doing an in-depth report from Haiti about men who had lost their wives in the earthquake and were left to take care of their children on their own. Poor, without work, traumatized. It put his situation in perspective, but he still hurt.
He got up to make a sandwich. On the way into the kitchen he noticed Lauren had left a Bible open to Psalm 139 on the kitchen table. She did that all the time. Leave him something to read in case he had trouble sleeping. She stuck a yellow post it note on the pages with an arrow that pointed to the title “Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart.” He read the psalm. Part of verse 18 jumped out at him, “I awake, and I am still with you.”
So he put those two together: the men in Haiti and God’s constant presence. He read Psalm 139 again, not reading it but making it his own prayer, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” Then he read it again and prayed for the men in Haiti, “O Lord, you have searched them and known them!” He prayed their tragedy would cause them to turn to God, since they wouldn’t find that kind of lasting help anywhere else.
And then he realized he needed to do the same thing.
More about Marcus Redding’s journey of faith next week.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Marcus Redding's Last Day At Work
His two weeks’ notice was up. Colby was gone but he wrote him a note thanking him for three years of good work and apologizing that there was no way he could keep him on.
Marcus tried one more time with Ron. He’d prayed for him, helped him reconcile with his mom, they went to the shooting range together, they were friends. After lunch Marcus took a deep breath and said, “Let me come over on Saturday and we’ll read the Bible together.” Ron said, “I appreciate what you’re trying to do man, it’s just not for me.” Ken was close by and heard their little conversation. Ken resented anyone who talked “religion.” As soon as Ron was out of sight Ken came up to Marcus, “Why don’t you leave him alone? You’re always asking to pray for him and stuff. He’s not interested.”
5:30 couldn’t come soon enough. He packed his old stereo that he brought to the warehouse so the guys could listen to music while they worked. He shook everybody’s hand, even Ken’s, and said goodbye. And that was it.
On the way home he stopped by the barber. His hair was long in the back and he figured he ought to have it “neat and clean cut” to give him the maximum chance to find a job. He was a hard worker and he had a heart of gold, but that wasn’t the first thing employers saw. Five or six of them in the past couple weeks had looked at his hair and the tattoos up and down his arms and told him they didn’t have any openings. One night Marcus sat down with the church directory and called every guy that wasn’t retired to ask about jobs. Then he called every guy that was retired to ask about jobs. Nothing.
Just as he was getting up from the barber’s chair, getting his eyes adjusted to his new look in the mirror, his cell phone rang. It was their apartment manager. The cold weather had broken some pipes in their place and their kitchen and living room were flooded. Water was dripping down the walls of the apartment below. It would be a few days before the place would be livable. He hung up and sighed. The barber asked what was wrong.
“What was wrong?” Marcus thought. It was one of those times when two or three things go wrong and one more doesn’t make it any worse. He answered with a shrug of his shoulders, “I lost my job today. I have no leads for work. My buddy won’t read the Bible with me…” He took off his jacket and lifted up his arms. “I have these wicked tattoos that stop people from looking at my resume. And my apartment just flooded. Thank you for the haircut. It looks good.”
The barber laughed. “What’s your name?” He told her. She said, “What kind of work do you do?” He told her.
“I’ll keep my ears open. Give me your cell phone number.” He did.
As he drove into his apartment complex to pick up some clothes he noticed some empty beer cans by the side of the road. It was just trash, but it was enough of a trigger to get him thinking. He needed to cut off those thoughts really fast. He called Lauren. She was in Corpus Christi at a technology seminar all week. Horrible timing.
He told her about his day. She listened. When he was done she told him to wait. He could hear her flipping through the pages of her Bible. After a while she said, “Okay, here you go.” She read Psalm 46:1-3.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”
“Marcus…the mountains haven’t fallen into the sea yet.” He chuckled. “Call me if they do, but until then pray and text me every hour until you go to bed, okay?”
“Okay, Lauren.”
More about Marcus Redding's journey of faith next week.
Marcus tried one more time with Ron. He’d prayed for him, helped him reconcile with his mom, they went to the shooting range together, they were friends. After lunch Marcus took a deep breath and said, “Let me come over on Saturday and we’ll read the Bible together.” Ron said, “I appreciate what you’re trying to do man, it’s just not for me.” Ken was close by and heard their little conversation. Ken resented anyone who talked “religion.” As soon as Ron was out of sight Ken came up to Marcus, “Why don’t you leave him alone? You’re always asking to pray for him and stuff. He’s not interested.”
5:30 couldn’t come soon enough. He packed his old stereo that he brought to the warehouse so the guys could listen to music while they worked. He shook everybody’s hand, even Ken’s, and said goodbye. And that was it.
On the way home he stopped by the barber. His hair was long in the back and he figured he ought to have it “neat and clean cut” to give him the maximum chance to find a job. He was a hard worker and he had a heart of gold, but that wasn’t the first thing employers saw. Five or six of them in the past couple weeks had looked at his hair and the tattoos up and down his arms and told him they didn’t have any openings. One night Marcus sat down with the church directory and called every guy that wasn’t retired to ask about jobs. Then he called every guy that was retired to ask about jobs. Nothing.
Just as he was getting up from the barber’s chair, getting his eyes adjusted to his new look in the mirror, his cell phone rang. It was their apartment manager. The cold weather had broken some pipes in their place and their kitchen and living room were flooded. Water was dripping down the walls of the apartment below. It would be a few days before the place would be livable. He hung up and sighed. The barber asked what was wrong.
“What was wrong?” Marcus thought. It was one of those times when two or three things go wrong and one more doesn’t make it any worse. He answered with a shrug of his shoulders, “I lost my job today. I have no leads for work. My buddy won’t read the Bible with me…” He took off his jacket and lifted up his arms. “I have these wicked tattoos that stop people from looking at my resume. And my apartment just flooded. Thank you for the haircut. It looks good.”
The barber laughed. “What’s your name?” He told her. She said, “What kind of work do you do?” He told her.
“I’ll keep my ears open. Give me your cell phone number.” He did.
As he drove into his apartment complex to pick up some clothes he noticed some empty beer cans by the side of the road. It was just trash, but it was enough of a trigger to get him thinking. He needed to cut off those thoughts really fast. He called Lauren. She was in Corpus Christi at a technology seminar all week. Horrible timing.
He told her about his day. She listened. When he was done she told him to wait. He could hear her flipping through the pages of her Bible. After a while she said, “Okay, here you go.” She read Psalm 46:1-3.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”
“Marcus…the mountains haven’t fallen into the sea yet.” He chuckled. “Call me if they do, but until then pray and text me every hour until you go to bed, okay?”
“Okay, Lauren.”
More about Marcus Redding's journey of faith next week.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Marcus Redding’s Solution For Worry
Big changes were on the way.
Lauren worried. Not so much about being a mother. She worried more about Marcus. He didn’t handle change well. He had this reliable job ever since he sobered up. But now between losing the job and the thought of raising a child for the Lord…. She knew Marcus was so serious-minded and good-hearted that he would be stressed out. Stress, change, feeling out of control. That’s what led Marcus to drink. She knew that temptation would always be there. She worried about other things, but she worried about Marcus most of all.
Marcus worried too, but for different reasons. He had faith and he was pretty laid back. He knew he could find a job. Eventually. More than anything he did not want Lauren to worry. He knew she would worry about him finding a job or getting so stressed he would start drinking again. He didn’t want her to worry about working from home to help them make it. He wanted her security. He wanted to keep providing her the stability she never had when she was growing up. Other things bothered him, but he worried about Lauren’s mindset most of all.
But Marcus had come up with a deal. When Lauren worried they would go through a three part procedure: vent, pray, move on. So on Saturday morning when he got back from the shooting range he found Lauren working on her computer at the kitchen table. As soon as he walked in the door she closed the laptop and said, “I’m worried.” He said, “Okay. Vent.”
And she vented. “I so much want to stay home…It’s hard to find jobs…I’ll work from home if I have to…How are you going to find work…I don’t want you to have to work at my uncle’s chicken farm…My life is going to be devoted to our children…I love you so much…I love this baby so much…” The venting session was interrupted by bouts of hormonal pregnant weeping, which panicked Marcus at first. But between sobs and tears Lauren reassured him, “I’m crying because my hormones are out of whack.” Marcus was relieved but wondered if he could look forward to seven or eight months worth of emotional venting sessions.
After an intense 20 minutes, she was done. He hugged her and said they’d be okay, that he would do everything he could, and that he had confidence God would take care of them. Then he did for Lauren what she had done for him so many times. He opened her laptop, clicked on Firefox, opened biblegateway.com, typed in Philippians 4:6-7, and angled the screen so she could read it.
She read it and sighed. Not a resentful sigh but a determined sigh. “Okay,” she said. And Marcus sat down across from her and held her hands. And she started saying the same things all over again, worries and weeping and all. But this time it was a prayer. Pouring her heart out to God. When she was done she squeezed his hands and then Marcus prayed. He thanked God for Lauren and the baby, asked for wisdom, asked for open doors to a job. Then he was quiet for a long time. Lauren opened her eyes and looked at him, “Are you done?” Marcus kept his eyes closed and continued, “God, all we want to do is have a godly family for you. That’s all we want. Please give us what we need to do that. Please. We know you will. We trust you.”
He finished praying and looked up. “Okay?” he said. “Okay,” she said.
“I know one thing for sure, Lauren.” She looked at him funny, “What?”
“I can beat you at Wii Bowling.” She scoffed at him, “Okay, pal, let’s go.”
More about Marcus Redding’s journey of faith next week.
Lauren worried. Not so much about being a mother. She worried more about Marcus. He didn’t handle change well. He had this reliable job ever since he sobered up. But now between losing the job and the thought of raising a child for the Lord…. She knew Marcus was so serious-minded and good-hearted that he would be stressed out. Stress, change, feeling out of control. That’s what led Marcus to drink. She knew that temptation would always be there. She worried about other things, but she worried about Marcus most of all.
Marcus worried too, but for different reasons. He had faith and he was pretty laid back. He knew he could find a job. Eventually. More than anything he did not want Lauren to worry. He knew she would worry about him finding a job or getting so stressed he would start drinking again. He didn’t want her to worry about working from home to help them make it. He wanted her security. He wanted to keep providing her the stability she never had when she was growing up. Other things bothered him, but he worried about Lauren’s mindset most of all.
But Marcus had come up with a deal. When Lauren worried they would go through a three part procedure: vent, pray, move on. So on Saturday morning when he got back from the shooting range he found Lauren working on her computer at the kitchen table. As soon as he walked in the door she closed the laptop and said, “I’m worried.” He said, “Okay. Vent.”
And she vented. “I so much want to stay home…It’s hard to find jobs…I’ll work from home if I have to…How are you going to find work…I don’t want you to have to work at my uncle’s chicken farm…My life is going to be devoted to our children…I love you so much…I love this baby so much…” The venting session was interrupted by bouts of hormonal pregnant weeping, which panicked Marcus at first. But between sobs and tears Lauren reassured him, “I’m crying because my hormones are out of whack.” Marcus was relieved but wondered if he could look forward to seven or eight months worth of emotional venting sessions.
After an intense 20 minutes, she was done. He hugged her and said they’d be okay, that he would do everything he could, and that he had confidence God would take care of them. Then he did for Lauren what she had done for him so many times. He opened her laptop, clicked on Firefox, opened biblegateway.com, typed in Philippians 4:6-7, and angled the screen so she could read it.
She read it and sighed. Not a resentful sigh but a determined sigh. “Okay,” she said. And Marcus sat down across from her and held her hands. And she started saying the same things all over again, worries and weeping and all. But this time it was a prayer. Pouring her heart out to God. When she was done she squeezed his hands and then Marcus prayed. He thanked God for Lauren and the baby, asked for wisdom, asked for open doors to a job. Then he was quiet for a long time. Lauren opened her eyes and looked at him, “Are you done?” Marcus kept his eyes closed and continued, “God, all we want to do is have a godly family for you. That’s all we want. Please give us what we need to do that. Please. We know you will. We trust you.”
He finished praying and looked up. “Okay?” he said. “Okay,” she said.
“I know one thing for sure, Lauren.” She looked at him funny, “What?”
“I can beat you at Wii Bowling.” She scoffed at him, “Okay, pal, let’s go.”
More about Marcus Redding’s journey of faith next week.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Marcus Redding Wonders What Is Next
Marcus gave Lauren a big hug, but he didn’t squeeze her too hard. He told her she would be a wonderful mother. And Lauren told Marcus she had all the confidence in the world in Marcus as a father because he had a good history of fathers in his family—“unlike mine,” she added under her breath. Then they stepped back and looked at each other. “Well, now what?”
The idea had always been for Marcus to work a decent paying job so he could be the main provider (1 Timothy 5:8) and Lauren could stay home while they were raising a family. That was the plan anyway. And they considered it God’s will for their lives. Lauren was great at what she did, but her heart wasn’t in her career. She wanted to devote her time and energy to the one thing that really mattered (Proverbs 31, Titus 2:4). But now Marcus lost his job while she succeeded at hers. And they were expecting a baby in seven months or so.
“Well, now what?” They were both thinking it but Lauren said it. Marcus said what he always said when they seemed to run into a dead end, “Brainstorm, Get Advice, Pray.”
So they went in and sat down at the kitchen table. Marcus looked at Lauren’s right hand and saw she was still holding the little plastic stick with a plus sign on it. He looked at her. Very seriously. “Lauren, God will make a way for me to work and you to stay at home. We’ll do whatever we need to do.” Lauren was just as serious, “You’re right Marcus, you’re right, but let’s be realistic.” So they talked about realism for the next five hours. Marcus had two more weeks at Colby’s. Lauren was due in just over seven months. They could make it on Lauren’s salary in the meantime. So they were good in the short term. But the short term was not what concerned them.
At 9:00 Lauren realized they hadn’t eaten dinner so she warmed up a couple Michelina’s TV dinners and they kept talking: brainstorming job opportunities for him, brainstorming work she could do from home if he couldn’t find a job. They made a list of people Marcus could talk to: Ron’s cousin worked for Panola Steel, Lauren’s brother Eddie worked for the post office, Lauren’s mom worked for Cracker Barrel. But nothing was certain and Marcus didn’t have any education beyond high school. Besides that, no one had ever told Marcus, “If you lose you job just come talk to me and we’ll take care of you.”
At 11:37 they were talked out. Marcus pushed back his chair, got up, walked over to the couch, picked up his Bible off the arm of the couch, came back, sat down, and opened it to James 1. He set the Bible in front of Lauren and pointed to the tiny number 2. “Here’s what we’ll do.” She read out loud through verse 6.
When she finished he said, “That’s what we’ll do. We’ll pray. Starting now.”
So they bowed their heads at the kitchen table (which was a card table) in their little apartment and they took turns praying. Marcus prayed for Lauren and the baby, for wisdom in finding a job, for a sense of peace. He finished by telling God that he trusted him. “You’ve taken care of me in the past. I know you will in the future.” Lauren prayed for herself and the baby, for Marcus to find a job, for wisdom to know what she should do about her own work. She finished by telling God that she trusted him. “I trust you, Lord. Short time or long, I know you will answer our prayer.”
They said amen and the apartment was quiet. There is a time for everything. And it was time for the three of them to go to bed.
More about Marcus Redding’s journey of faith next week.
The idea had always been for Marcus to work a decent paying job so he could be the main provider (1 Timothy 5:8) and Lauren could stay home while they were raising a family. That was the plan anyway. And they considered it God’s will for their lives. Lauren was great at what she did, but her heart wasn’t in her career. She wanted to devote her time and energy to the one thing that really mattered (Proverbs 31, Titus 2:4). But now Marcus lost his job while she succeeded at hers. And they were expecting a baby in seven months or so.
“Well, now what?” They were both thinking it but Lauren said it. Marcus said what he always said when they seemed to run into a dead end, “Brainstorm, Get Advice, Pray.”
So they went in and sat down at the kitchen table. Marcus looked at Lauren’s right hand and saw she was still holding the little plastic stick with a plus sign on it. He looked at her. Very seriously. “Lauren, God will make a way for me to work and you to stay at home. We’ll do whatever we need to do.” Lauren was just as serious, “You’re right Marcus, you’re right, but let’s be realistic.” So they talked about realism for the next five hours. Marcus had two more weeks at Colby’s. Lauren was due in just over seven months. They could make it on Lauren’s salary in the meantime. So they were good in the short term. But the short term was not what concerned them.
At 9:00 Lauren realized they hadn’t eaten dinner so she warmed up a couple Michelina’s TV dinners and they kept talking: brainstorming job opportunities for him, brainstorming work she could do from home if he couldn’t find a job. They made a list of people Marcus could talk to: Ron’s cousin worked for Panola Steel, Lauren’s brother Eddie worked for the post office, Lauren’s mom worked for Cracker Barrel. But nothing was certain and Marcus didn’t have any education beyond high school. Besides that, no one had ever told Marcus, “If you lose you job just come talk to me and we’ll take care of you.”
At 11:37 they were talked out. Marcus pushed back his chair, got up, walked over to the couch, picked up his Bible off the arm of the couch, came back, sat down, and opened it to James 1. He set the Bible in front of Lauren and pointed to the tiny number 2. “Here’s what we’ll do.” She read out loud through verse 6.
When she finished he said, “That’s what we’ll do. We’ll pray. Starting now.”
So they bowed their heads at the kitchen table (which was a card table) in their little apartment and they took turns praying. Marcus prayed for Lauren and the baby, for wisdom in finding a job, for a sense of peace. He finished by telling God that he trusted him. “You’ve taken care of me in the past. I know you will in the future.” Lauren prayed for herself and the baby, for Marcus to find a job, for wisdom to know what she should do about her own work. She finished by telling God that she trusted him. “I trust you, Lord. Short time or long, I know you will answer our prayer.”
They said amen and the apartment was quiet. There is a time for everything. And it was time for the three of them to go to bed.
More about Marcus Redding’s journey of faith next week.
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