Always Tried and Proven (12 page)

     Callie shakily walked up to the mic, and tried to begin to sing of God’s faithfulness.  She felt dirty and stained, and as though her unsanctified voice would smirch the very air.  Jeremy had to repeat the intro again, as Callie tried to deal with the misgivings in her heart.   But, Sam turned and looked into her eyes just then, and she felt the beam of truth and pure love come into her being.  A great gladness filled her heart suddenly.  He’d been speaking directly to her just one moment before, laying her heart open, and airing her sin publicly; yet Sam’s eyes caused her to know that it didn’t matter.  His Grace was sufficient.

     She was only a tool; a vessel to use, like Sam, to touch the people.  Suddenly, she understood.  It didn’t matter if she was a sinner, or a saint at that moment. He could speak through any Balaam’s ass he chose.  Yet, she was there, the chosen one, at that moment.  It was a miracle, a strange way to go, but it was His choice. 

      Sam’s eyes seemed to speak to her, telling her that the music flowing through her would make her clean.  “It’s an act of faith.” His voice urged her, deep inside.  “If you’ll sing it, he’ll cleanse you and you’ll become what you sing.  Don’t think about it, just do it.” He seemed to say to her heart.

      So, she opened her mouth, forgetting her sin, and her voice was crystal clear, and hushed; sweet, but it cut like a knife.  Before it was over, she’d built the power like a mighty wave, and her voice sounded like the roaring of a lion in its intensity.  Yet it remained sweet, clear; then, husky; so feminine.  It was cool and soothing, healing to the heart.

      The people poured like a river to the front, as Callie sang.  There was no doubt about it; hearts were being deeply touched, throughout the tent.  When she was done, there were few dry eyes left in the house.  This time, there was no applause.  Repentance had come very heavily.  And the sound of weeping went on.

     Callie was just about to leave, when Sam’s voice stopped her cold in her tracks.  “There is someone here tonight who hasn’t yet come to the altar.  Someone who has been badly wounded by a man.  A past love.  Or perhaps, more than one.  But this one was named Dexter.  This lady is young.  Twenty-three years old, and she is fragile in her heart.  She has long hair.”

      Sam shook his head, and looked around the tent.  “Honey, if you’re listening to me, come down here.  Come now, quickly.  Don’t wait anymore.  Don’t  try to analyze it.  Jesus wants to heal you.  He loves you.  He specifically wanted you to know.  He’s here for you.  Tonight is the night for you to be healed from those wounds, and to enter the next chapter of your life, to have your dreams all fulfilled. 
Please
come, honey.”

      Callie turned horrified eyes to Sam, fully expecting him to be looking right at her. But, he was scanning the crowd.  “He tells me that you are twenty-three years old, and scared to death, tonight.  He says don’t worry about being late to work.  The boys can do it without you, tonight.”

      “He says that your papa’s name was Willy.  He was somehow involved in this situation that was so hurtful to you.  This is pretty specific stuff, young lady.  This is the voice of God, calling out to you.  I know you’re here.  He’s very insistent.”

      Callie shut her mouth, and turned to scurry off the stage.  Then, Sam started talking again.  Somehow, Callie was obliged to listen.  She just could not walk away, when he was talking to her so specifically.  But she was frightened.  Very frightened.

      “Honey, I almost lost my life, when I was your age.  I didn’t realize that I was precious to the Lord.  I had no idea that anybody cared for me.  I was face down in a gutter in the rain, sick and spent, when I realized that I was going to die.  There was no one to save me.  No one to help me.  No one who cared, no one who even knew my name in that city.  I'd only arrived on a boat from Sydney, earlier that day.”

      “But then, a man walked up the alley, and found me lying there, in a pile of garbage.  He bodily picked up all two hundred pounds of me.  He carried me three miles to the nearest hospital, on his own back.  He paid cash for my bill in advance, and checked me into the hospital under my correct, full name.  Then he left, and I never saw him again.  But, I will never forget the sight of his face, bending over mine.  The compassion and love in his eyes was simply staggering to me.  I couldn't understand it, nothing made any sense.”

       Sam walked the stage, his eyes continually roaming the crowd.  “The thing of it is, I was a complete stranger.  I’d found some drug mongers to hang out with, and I told them my name was Teddy.  I was afraid to tell them my real name.  And so, no one knew anything about me.  I had no identification, no wallet, and no credit cards.  I was simply interested in getting drugs.  I promised some girls that I’d do anything for drugs, and they took me to a party.  And they took me at my word.  I nearly gave my life for those drugs.”

      “Those people did atrocious things to me, then threw me in the alley, for dead.  It’s a miracle that I’m alive.  I am telling you this because … just as there was someone there that night who came and saved my life -- someone sent by Jesus – there is someone here tonight who is willing and able to reach a hand out to you.  Someone who will care enough to pursue you for His sake, because He loves you so dearly.”

      “Young lady,” he pleaded.  Callie watched Sam stop suddenly, and bow his head.  He swallowed hard and looked at the crowd with narrowed eyes, trying to hold back tears.  “I would lay down my life today, if that’s what it takes to see you restored to Jesus.  You were saved as a child, but you wandered away.  He wants you back.”

      “Will you come here and let me pray with you?  Will you please, come?  Come on, honey.  This bitterness in your heart has been eating you alive.  This betrayal, this awful thing that happened, is not worth losing your eternal life over.  Come and release it now, won’t you?  Give the burden back to Jesus, and give Him your heart once again.”

     Callie gasped, and darted out of the tent.  She simply couldn’t take it, anymore.  Her hands were still trembling when she pulled in and parked at the club.  She couldn’t seem to snap out of it.  How could Sam have known all those things, known about Dexter?  How could he have known about her father?  How could he have known her age?  Why?  Why was he trying to expose her this way?

       Callie’s night was horrid.  She was not herself, at all.  She had a Peppermint Schnapps to soothe her nerves, but even that didn’t help.  She was really quite undone.  She went through her first three sets by rote, feeling like she had a plastic smile pasted on her face.  She felt as though she wanted to vomit, or cry, or both.

      Finally, her fourth and final set came.  She almost didn’t put the sun dress on; then she chided herself.  She had a job to do, and do it she would.  She put the dress of sea-green silk on, and let her hair flow down over her shoulders.  She smiled sadly at herself in the mirror as she brushed out her long tresses.  They glimmered under the lights, like silk.  Wearing her knee-high white boots, she made a very pretty picture as she climbed the steps to the stage.

     She was back just in time, and the band lost no time starting the music for her.  She put on her guitar while they played the intro, and then she stepped into the spotlight and began singing.  She closed her eyes whenever she was tempted to look around and see if Sam was sitting out there.  She was thoroughly convinced that she didn’t want to know it, if he was.  She was pretty certain anyway, that he wouldn’t come back tonight; it was foolishness to think he would.  Still, her heart plummeted when she looked and didn’t see him anywhere.

      Half way through the set, she decided it was time for a love song.  The one she had in mind was lovesick and melancholy, and she certainly felt the part.  Sam was getting to her, in a big way.  How he’d cut her to the bone when he said he’d lay his life down for her!   He’d had tears in his eyes as he begged her to come.  He’d humbled himself and begged.  He’d made himself so vulnerable to try to save her. 
Her!
  Just
her
.  And he didn’t even know that she was the one he was calling to.  Sadie knew nothing about Willie or Dexter, so she could not have told Sam.

      This God must be real.  He
must
be real.  He’d certainly given her enough to think about.  He knew all about her, and he’d told Sam all those things.

     The song went over very well.  She got a cry in her voice that was real.  All
too
real.  She sang every word deliberately, and she meant every word.

     There was silence when she was done, and then a roar of applause.   While the audience was still going wild, the boys counted off a driving rock song and hit it, while Callie put her guitar back on.  She felt better after bleeding some of the emotion out of her soul, and then delivering some rock with an attitude.  The last few songs passed quickly, and before she knew it, it was time to close up.

     Callie sighed as the house lights went up, and she put her hands on her aching lower back.  Then her heart somersaulted, and plummeted into her stomach. Her tongue suddenly stuck to the roof of her mouth.  She couldn’t seem to make her frozen body move.  He was sitting there watching her, in Levi’s and a white shirt open at the collar.  His eyes looked like living fire.

     Callie couldn’t seem to tear her eyes from his.  She felt Jimmie walk up to stand beside her.  “So, he’s back again tonight, is he?”  he snarled.  “I would be more than delighted to throw this sucker out on his ear, Callie.”

     “Jimmie, don’t be ridiculous.”  Callie snapped.  “He’s my friend.”

     Jimmie snorted, and turned away.

    She forced herself to walk down off the stage, and go to Sam’s table. “You certainly are a glutton for punishment, aren’t you?” she teased him tensely.  “How do you justify chasing a tart into a bar every night?  Don’t you know that you’re in the very heart of the den of sin?”

     Sam grinned at her, and shook his head.  “The only place I’m trying to chase you, is into my arms.  Sit down, Callie.” He challenged, offering her a chair that came with his arm across the back.

      She sat down, gingerly.

    “Callie, my God is bigger than anything I might find in a bar.  I don't fear alcohol, or drugs, women or demons.  I've already fought them all.  I'm not so weak that coming into contact with the world is going to destroy me.  God is with me wherever I go, and I go where He sends me.  Further, I can go wherever I will.  You should understand this; you're not afraid to be in a bar.  Does your environment change who you are, or drag you down, when you go into a bar?”

      “No.” she said quietly.

      “Well; it's the same for me.  I've gone through the fire, when it comes to being in such a place; it doesn't touch me.”

      Callie nodded.  Somehow, it made perfect sense to her that Sam wasn't afraid to go anywhere he chose to go.

      She began to talk, so that he wouldn’t.  What he had to say was frightening to her.  “That was quite a sermon you delivered tonight.  Do you always know so much about the people in the audience?”

       Sam shrugged.  “No.  But when there are some hard nuts to crack, the Lord doesn’t hesitate to put his finger on them, and tell me their special secrets.  It just shocks them into looking at reality, every now and then.  Most of the time, when the Lord gives me that level of word of knowledge, people get saved.”  He sighed.

      “Not this time?”

     He shook his head sadly.  “All of them came, but one.  The murderer came, the mother who discarded her baby came, the Satan worshipers came, the guy who stabbed his brother in the leg came.  But that
last girl,
didn’t respond.”

      Callie blushed.  She’d been hoping beyond hope that some long-haired little thing had snatched up a great opportunity for prayer from Sam.

    “I
know
that she was there!”  he lamented almost angrily.  He was very frustrated, obviously.  “Callie, I could feel her panic increasing with every word the Lord told me to say.  She is very frightened, for some reason, of being exposed.  I just wish I knew
why
.”  He said in a low voice.

      It disturbed Callie to see that Sam was carrying her burden so heavily.  “Well, Sam, listen.  Don’t … don’t worry about it.  I’m sure that she’ll do something soon.” She soothed, albeit a bit nervously.

     Sam eyed her curiously.  “Sadie said that you seemed upset tonight when you left.  Was everything all right?”

     Callie blushed, and hurriedly answered.  “Fine!  I was just in a hurry.  I was wanting to stay as long as I could; I mean, you were in the middle of your story, and all, but I finally had to just go, anyway.”  She said brightly.

      Sam gave her a lazy smile.  “You know that your song was yet again perfect, don’t you?  How did you know exactly what was on my heart to talk about tonight?” he demanded affectionately.

      Callie shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I just … knew that it would be right.”

      “So, God talks to this Callie Wilson.”  Sam accused thoughtfully.

      “I don’t think so, Sam.”  She denied quickly.

      “I do.”  He argued.  His dimples jumped to life, as his smile broadened.  “I see that you took my advice about the dress.”  He commented, seeming pleased by the fact.