Dance Into Destiny (16 page)

“I don't know. We've been friends since freshman year of college and we get together every now and then.”

Shara let out a deep breath. “Keeva, I'm gonna take off. I'll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Wait. You wanna go get something to eat?”

“No, Keeva, I just want to go home.” She noticed the disappointment on Keeva's face. She sighed. “You can come over if you want. I rented a movie and we can stop at Fellini's.”

Keeva smiled. “Pizza sounds great.” Keeva headed toward her car.

“Don't you need to tell them you're leaving?”

“Nah. I think after a while, they'll figure it out. Or who knows, if they keep drinking, they'll never realize I'm gone.”

Shara laughed. “All right. I'll meet you at my house.”

S
hara was doing her Saturday morning cleaning a week later when the phone rang.

“Hey, Shara.” It was Keeva. “The pottery place called me. Our pieces have
been
ready. You want me to come by and get you so we can pick them up? We can take Mother Hobbs her teapot afterwards. I want to see her face when she gets it.”

Shara looked at the pile of dishes in the sink and thought of her overflowing laundry basket. “I can't, Keeva. I really need to clean my apartment.”

“Come on, Shar. You can clean later. Please?”

Shara hadn't spent any time with Mother Hobbs lately. “All right. I'll be ready when you get here.”

When they pulled up at Mother Hobbs' house an hour later, Shara was glad to see her car, as they hadn't bothered to call before dropping by. She knew Mother Hobbs' water aerobics and yoga classes ended a couple of hours ago, and she usually spent Saturday afternoons cleaning or working in her herb garden.

Shara rang the doorbell. When the door opened, she staggered backwards a little, bumping into Keeva. “What are you doing here?”

It was Quinton.

“Well, hello, Miss Shara, glad to see you, too,” he said.

Shara hadn't remembered him looking so good. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I just . . . I wasn't expecting you . . .”

Keeva pushed past Shara and gave Quinton a hug. “Quinton, it's great to see you. Excuse my friend here. She has no manners. Are you back for good?”

“Good to see you too, Keeva. Yep, I'm getting settled in here for a little while and then hopefully it won't be forever before my place is fixed up in the 'hood.”

He stepped over to hug Shara, but she lifted the large gift bag she was holding up to her chest. He stepped back, letting his arms fall back to his sides. “You brought me a present? I'm touched.”

“No, it's for Mother Hobbs. Where is she anyway?”

“She's at the grocery store. I drove in last night and you know her. She insisted on having plenty of food to fatten me up with. She should be back any minute now.”

Shara looked over at Mother Hobbs' car in the driveway.

Quinton said, “I let her borrow my truck. She said she wanted to go to the grocery store in style.”

Keeva raised her eyebrows. “Really? What kind of truck do you have?”

“Just a regular ol' SUV.”

He turned toward Shara. “You look great. Doing that natural thang, huh? I like your hair like that.”

“Thanks.” Shara smoothed her hair back and got a handful of styling gel. She kept meaning to try a dry mousse she'd seen in a magazine.

Mother Hobbs pulled up in a black Cadillac Escalade. She had shades on and had her locs pulled up high on her head. She slowly pulled the sunglasses off and looked over at them, posing elegantly.

Shara shook her head. “Look at her. She is too much.”

“Oooh, nice truck.” Keeva walked down the sidewalk as Mother Hobbs was getting out. Mother Hobbs got out and gave her a big hug and kiss.

Quinton looked over at Shara. “What do you think?”

“It's okay. Well actually, it's a little—”

“Ostentatious? I know. It was one of the few luxuries I allowed myself when I first got paid. I didn't go crazy and buy up everything like most of the other rookies, but I figured after riding the el and buses and walking all my life, I deserved a little ‘sump'n sump'n.' I'm over it now. I'll probably sell it soon. Wouldn't be wise to park it in my new neighborhood.”

Quinton walked down the porch steps. “Don't you dare touch a bag.”

Mother Hobbs had opened the back of the truck and was getting the groceries.

“Go on in the house, I'll bring everything in,” Quinton said.

Mother Hobbs gave Shara a hug. “Girl, did you see me? Didn't Mother Hobbs look good?” Her eyes lit up when she saw the gift bag. “Is that for me?”

“Yes, Mother dear,” Shara answered. “Come on in the house so you can open it.”

Shara, Keeva, and Mother Hobbs sat at the kitchen table while Quinton brought in the groceries. Mother Hobbs squealed when she saw her teapot. “Oh, Shara, this is beautiful. It's absolutely perfect.”

“You can't put it on the burner. You have to boil the water on the stove and then pour it over the herbs in the pot.”

“Child, who you tellin' how to make tea?”

Keeva put her little gift bag on the table. Mother Hobbs squealed again when she opened it. “What did I do to deserve all this love? A new teapot and cup, a jazzy new SUV to ride around town in, a big, strong man to carry my groceries. I'm special today.”

They all laughed. Mother Hobbs got up and put the groceries away and started pulling out pots. “What y'all want to eat? I'm gonna cook up a big dinner for everybody. Get out the kitchen now, let me do my thing.”

They moved back out onto the porch.

“Hey, Quinton, are you going to take us for a ride in the truck?” Keeva asked.

“Sure, you guys could give me a little tour—show me all the hotspots in the city. I don't know where anything is besides Mother Hobbs' house and the church.”

“Cool, let's roll. I'll show you Atlanta according to Keeva Banks.”

Quinton came around the side of the truck to open the door for them. Keeva sat in the front to navigate.

“Okay, the key to Atlanta is this. You have a big circle with a cross through the middle. The circle is 285. The cross is I-20 intersecting with I-85 and I-75. They run together for a while, but then split at the top and bottom. In the city itself, you have a million streets named Peachtree something. There's Atlanta itself and then the surrounding suburbs that make up the metro area like Stone Mountain, Lithonia, East Point, College Park . . .”

Keeva gave Quinton a layout of the city and told him about the different areas. They drove for a couple of hours and made their way to Midtown's Peachtree Street.

They crossed Ponce de Leon. “This is the Fabulous Fox Theatre.” Keeva pointed. “All the good stuff comes here. I live right down the street a couple of blocks.”

Quinton read the marquis. “The Alvin Ailey dancers. Have you guys seen them before? They're great.”

“Yeah, they are, aren't they?” Keeva sighed.

Shara spoke up from the back seat. “I'll have to check them out. Keeva's always saying how good they are.”

Quinton looked back at Shara. “Are you kidding? You've never seen the Alvin Ailey dancers before? How long have you lived in Atlanta?” Quinton looked over at Keeva. “Is she for real?”

Keeva giggled. “I've been working on her lately, trying to get her ‘culturified.' She's trying to sneak me Jesus. We both have our own little private agendas going on here.”

They all laughed.

Quinton asked, “So do you guys want to go check out Alvin Ailey?”

“I don't think so. I used to go all the time, but . . . no, I think I'll pass,” Keeva answered.

Quinton looked over his shoulder. “What about you, Shara? You want to check them out with me?”

“I think I'll pass too, Quinton,” Shara answered.

“Brotha can't get no love around here. That's all right. I guess I'll settle for dinner after church tomorrow.”

“I won't be at church tomorrow,” Keeva said.

Quinton looked over his shoulder. “Shara, I guess you won't be able to join me either.”

“I have to clean my apartment tomorrow. That's where I'm supposed to be now, but Keeva kidnapped me. We are having dinner tonight though, when we get back to Mother Hobbs house. Remember?”

“Oh yeah, well, I guess that will have to do.”

Mother Hobbs had a feast ready by the time they got back to the house. Quinton rubbed his stomach. “Oh boy, here we go again.”

They ate, talked, and laughed until it got late. When it was time for Keeva and Shara to leave, Quinton walked them to the door as if he were now head of the house. He hugged Keeva. “Good to see you again and thanks for the tour.” He turned to Shara. She stiffened a little as he hugged her. “So I guess I'll see you tomorrow?”

She nodded and smoothed back her hair. “Yeah, tomorrow.”

W
hen Shara opened her eyes when worship ended in service the next morning, she was surprised to see Keeva standing beside her, lifting her hands. She had felt someone slip into the seat beside her, but was too caught up in the presence of God to look and see who it was.

“What are you doing here?” she said in a loud whisper while giving Keeva a hug.

“What—I can't come to church?” Keeva turned to hug Mother Hobbs who was sitting on her other side.

Shara gave her a wide grin.

Pastor Kendrick came to the podium and pulled out his Bible and some notes.

“Good morning, saints. Wow, with worship like that, I can push right on into the Word. I feel like the atmosphere is ripe and ready and I pray that your hearts are good ground that will take in this Word and produce 100-fold. Turn in your Bibles to . . .”

Shara noticed that for the first few minutes of his sermon, Pastor Kendrick was struggling. She looked over at Jenell who appeared to be equally puzzled.

“I'm sorry, folks. I have to obey the Holy Spirit. I had one message all planned out to share—notes and everything, but the Lord is leading me in another direction. I don't know why, but I know Him well enough to know He knows what He's doing.” He laid his notes aside. “Walk with me now, I'm hearing this as you are, so I'm gonna trust the anointing is going to take over because I have no idea where I'm going.”

“Preach, Pastor!” several members encouraged.

He smiled and flipped through his Bible. “Okay, we're going to look at several scriptures. Turn to John 18:28-37. I promise if you follow me, this will all make sense.”

He read the scripture and then paraphrased. “Basically, Jesus is about to be crucified and He's being questioned before Pilate and is not saying
anything
.
Finally, Pilate, the Roman governor, looks at him and says ‘I don't know if You realize what's up here, man—but these people are trying to kill You. You ain't got
nothing
to say? Are you a King or what?'

“Jesus is real cool and says, ‘Yeah, I'm a King. In fact, to this end, I was born, and for this reason I came into the world.' Key phrase saints,
‘to this end I was born, and for this reason I came into the world
.' Jesus knew
exactly
why He was born and
exactly
what He came into the world to do.”

Pastor Kendrick started doing that little pacing thing he did when the Word got good to him. “All right, now turn to John 4:34. I promise if you follow me, this will all make sense.”

He read the scripture, then summarized, “Okay, here Jesus has been talking to the woman at the well and the disciples just came back from grocery shopping. They're telling Jesus, ‘Yo, man, you looking a little tired. You need to eat a little ‘sump'n sump'n.' Jesus tells them He has food they don't know nothing about. So the disciples wonder if someone else went and bought him some chicken wings or a fish sammich or something. Then He busts this revelation on 'em, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.' ”

Pastor Kendrick paused. “I need you all to catch that. Jesus was saying, my food, my sustenance, my nourishment, that which keeps me alive—is to do what God sent me to do and to finish His work. How many of you have ever gone without food for any period of time? Think about how your body feels when you do that. How long do you think you could actually
live
without food?”

He flipped through his Bible again. “Another scripture. I promise if you follow me . . .”

“. . . this will all make sense,” the congregation said in unison.

Pastor Kendrick looked up. “Have I said that before?”

Everybody laughed.

“Okay, turn to Esther 4:14. Esther is after Ezra, which is after Nehemiah.”

Pages could be heard turning.

“It's before Job which is before Psalms and Proverbs.”

Pages turning.

“It's on page 624 in my Bible.”

Everybody laughed.

“While you're finding it, let me set things up here. The Jews were God's covenant people, but they were really hardheaded—like most of us. They had a problem with putting other ‘gods' before God—like most of us. God kept warning them and warning them, but they didn't listen—”

“. . . like most of us,” the congregation said in unison.

“I didn't say that.” Pastor Kendrick laughed. “So finally, He allows them to be taken into captivity by other nations. Before, they had their own land and their own kings and government, but now, because of their disobedience, they're living subject to another government. Whew, that's a whole 'nother sermon in itself.” He stopped and jotted down a note.

“Anyway, this particular set of Jews were living under a Persian king by the name of Xerxes. He has this party so he could show off all his riches and majesty to the people for seven days. Now
that's
a party. He gets drunk and decides to show off his wife and sends for her. Well, his wife, Queen Vashti refuses to come. The king's wise men are like, ‘Yo, King. If you let her get away with dissing you like that, then all the wives all over your kingdom are gonna start dissing their husbands too. We can't have that.' So Queen Vashti gets put out the castle and the king starts this search for another queen. All these virgins are called together for him to pick from. They go through all these beauty treatments for a whole
year
.”

He smirked. “I guess I shouldn't complain when Jenell spends half the day in the beauty shop.”

The congregation laughed. Jenell crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue at him.

“Long story short, God gave favor to this little Jewish girl, Esther, and she became queen. Well, everything was all good until the King's right hand man, Haman, starts ego-tripping. He gets mad because Esther's cousin, Mordecai, won't bow down to him and honor him. So he finds out that Mordecai is a Jew and instead of just punishing Mordecai, he decides to kill all the Jews. Haman goes to the king and gets him to sign a death sentence for all the Jews in his kingdom. So Mordecai sends word to Esther, ‘Yo, you need to do something, shawty, or me and all us Jews are gonna get kilt.' ”

Everyone laughed. Mother Hobbs shook her head. “That boy is crazy. I don't see that in my Bible.”

“Esther sends word back and says, ‘Look, Cousin Mordy, you don't understand how things work in the castle. If I go to the king and he didn't call for me, I could get killed. He ain't even thought about me in a whole month. The only way I get to talk to him is for him to extend his golden scepter to me.'

“Well, Mordecai sends word back, ‘Girl, you ain't special! Don't think just because you queen, you ain't gonna die, too. You're a Jew like the rest of us. If you don't do nothing, God will send deliverance for the Jews from another place, but you and your family will die.' ”

Pastor Kendrick stopped pacing and came back to the podium. “Okay, saints, here's the key verse. Mordecai says to her in verse 14, ‘who knows whether you are come into the kingdom for such a time as this?' Basically, he says to her, how do you know it's not your destiny? The whole reason you were born was for this moment. God gave you favor to become queen for this reason.”

He put down his Bible. “Long story short, Esther risks her life and goes in to the king and intercedes for her people. She saves all the Jews in the kingdom from being put to death. In that, she's a type of Christ. She was born for the salvation of her people. Her entire destiny—her reason for living—was to save her people from destruction. Jesus was saying the same thing in those scriptures. His entire purpose, his destiny, his reason for living, was to do the will of God and save people—
us
—
from destruction.”

Pastor Kendrick wiped his forehead.

“One last thing, and then I'm gonna close. We won't turn there, but you know the story of Joseph. He was sold into slavery by his brothers, and ended up in Potiphar's house. Then Potiphar's wife framed him because he wouldn't get busy with her, so he ended up in jail. His life was hard—slavery, then prison for years and years. Finally he ends up interpreting a dream for Pharaoh and becomes second in command in the whole kingdom of Egypt. There was a famine throughout the land and long story short, God gave Joseph a plan to save everybody, including his whole household who eventually multiplied and became the people of Israel. God preserved the patriarchs of the Jewish nation—which eventually gave birth to Jesus Christ himself—through Joseph. That was his whole destiny, his whole purpose. He had to go through a whole bunch of hell in his life, but that hell led him to where God ordained him to be, and he ended up saving an entire nation.”

Pastor Kendrick stopped pacing. “I want to ask the question of each of you. For what reason were
you
born? Why are
you
here? What is
your
purpose? What did God send
you
to the earth to do? 'Cause let me tell you something. If you're not living for the purpose that God ordained you to live for, you're not living. Jesus said it was His food to do God's will. If you're not doing God's will, what are you feeding on?

“That's why some of you are so miserable. You're not doing what God created you to do. Five days a week, you're depressed because you spend all day doing something you weren't meant to. Meanwhile, the purpose of God lies dormant within you. And you wonder why your hair is falling out and you're having panic attacks and you can't sleep. Stop giving all that money to the psychiatrist and the psychic. Stop living the life others think you should live or that the American dream dictates.”

Keeva shifted in her seat and looked at Shara.

Shara leaned over and whispered, “No, I didn't talk to him about you. It's the Spirit of God speaking through him.”

Pastor Kendrick walked to the other side of the stage. “That's our problem—chasing the American dream, some fabricated idea of success. Fancy cars, big houses, and material wealth. If that's success, then why are so many rich people miserable? Why are so many so-called successful people miserable? You want real success? You want real life? You want real joy and real happiness? Find out what God put you here for and pursue it with all your heart. The prosperity will follow you, instead of you chasing it. I promise you, you'll know joy that you never imagined. I can just see God now, designing each one of us, putting inside of us exactly what we need to fulfill our destiny. Think of all the untapped potential inside of you.”

He slowed down and came back to the podium. “I'm gonna say this and then I'll close. You'll never know who you really are until you know who
God
says you are. You'll never know why you're here unless
God
shows you. It's like Myles Monroe says, ‘if you want to know the purpose of a thing, you have to consult the manufacturer. ' God is the master designer and manufactured you with a specific purpose in mind. If a blender can't blend, it's worthless. If a vacuum cleaner doesn't vacuum, it's worthless. If your washing machine doesn't get your clothes clean and your dryer doesn't dry, they're worthless. If you're not doing what God made you to do, what is your worth?”

Shara looked over and noticed Keeva trembling.

Pastor Kendrick said, “One last thought, and then I promise I'm gonna close. Esther's purpose and destiny was to save her people from destruction. Joseph's purpose and destiny was to save an entire nation, and the future Jewish nation from destruction. I didn't talk about Moses, but you know the story. His purpose and destiny was to deliver the people of Israel from bondage. Look at Joshua—his purpose was to lead God's people into their promised land. And finally Jesus . . . His whole purpose and destiny—the reason why he was born and the reason He died was to save the
human
nation from death and destruction. Think about this. Who were you put here to save from destruction? Whose deliverer are you? If you don't find the purpose of God for your life, what people may end up being destroyed? Or will it be like Mordecai told Esther. If you don't do what you're supposed to do, God will send deliverance through somebody else, but you'll die. How many of you are ‘dying' because you're not living the life God made you to live?”

Tears streamed down Keeva's face. Shara reached over and took her hand and held it tightly.

Pastor Kendrick closed. “Jesus said, ‘I came to give you life and that more abundantly.' If you don't have Him, you're missing out on life. You may have life, but not the best life you can have. There are some here God has been speaking to today. You've felt like the living dead. You've felt empty, like your life has no meaning or purpose, like you're just going through the motions. If you accept Him, and truly follow Him . . . If you seek Him for your purpose and destiny, I promise life will be more than you ever dreamed it could be. If that's you, then you can come to the altar and we'll pray for you. Don't leave here today without him.”

People streamed to the altar. Pastor Kendrick, Jenell, Quinton, Shara and some of the other ministers prayed for each one individually. Mother Hobbs got up to move toward the altar, but Keeva caught her hand as she was leaving.

Shara could hardly concentrate on the person she was praying for as she saw Keeva sobbing in Mother Hobbs' arms. She finished ministering to the person and walked over just in time to hear her friend accept Christ into her life.