Subtle Manipulations

Excerpt

DeAndre watched as Jasmine pulled her dark blue Acura Legend Sedan up next to his gray Chevrolet Impala.  He waved at her as she cut the car off and got out of the car.  She walked over to his driver’s side door.  He acted as if he didn’t want to get out of the car.  She made a face at him.  He laughed and got out of the car.  He grabbed his cousin and gave her a big hug that lifted her up off the ground.

She laughed.  “You need to quit hugging folk like that.  You’re gonna hurt somebody one of these days.”

He smiled.  “Look at you looking all fab-u-lous in your pink outfit.  I’m scared of you.”

She laughed.  “I do look good, don’t I?”

He twisted his lips.  “Whatever.  I’m the one who taught you how to dress so, you should be thanking me.”

She stuck her tongue out at her cousin.  He had no problem reminding her that he was responsible for her whole look.

“Whatever,” she thought.

He put his arm in her arm and walked her to the entrance of the church, “You’re wearing your heels.  That’s good.  You look like you may be able to walk in them.  You’re too cute.”

She shook her head.  “Leave me alone, please.  Remember, we are starting a new life here, so don’t be telling all of my business.  No one knows us here, so we can be whoever we want to be.”

He laughed.  “You’re too serious.  So, I can be a big-time lawyer instead of an accounts payable clerk.”

She shook her head.  “Yeah, if you want to be.  You need Jesus.”

He said, “Never said I didn’t.”  That was his response to that phrase every time she said it to him.

They finally reached the door of Parkworth.  He let her arm go as they walked through the front doors of the church.  He looked around.  It was as nice as she had said it was.  The building met with his approval, as if the house of the Lord needed anyone’s approval.  But, he’d his fill of storefront and small churches, the church had to look nice for him to consider joining it.

He was looking for a new church home.  He’d outgrown his current church home.  He’d been a member of the church since childhood.  There weren’t any young people joining the church and the pastor wouldn’t listen to any of his ideas about revamping the service slightly to attract a younger crowd.  He hadn’t suggested any drastic changes, just mostly updating the service style.  The old fashion foot stomping, hand clapping, testimonial service style of worship was cool for a weekday service, but upwardly mobile young folk, were more into a structured Sunday morning service.  The choir still even sung the old style of songs from the 1980s.  Please, at least update the style of music that the choir sung, but the choir president, who had to be over 110 years old, wouldn’t do it.  Okay, so Sister Moss was only like 60, but she still needed to teach the choir some new songs.  The pastor even preached an old-style message.  He preached a goulash message for over an hour.  Young people wanted a more polished message that could be followed easily.  He had a hard time following his pastor when he jumped from talking about shacking to talking about how it was when he first built the church.  Seriously, what in the world does shacking have to do with building a church?

He didn’t want his pastor to change his message, just change his delivery.  He understood the need to preach Holiness or hell, but there was a way to preach it without boring everyone in the sanctuary with the message.

Jasmine tugged at his arm.  “Boy, would you come on.  We have missed the beginning of the praise and worship service.  Let’s go.”

He smiled.  Did she just say ‘Praise and Worship’ service?  I may like this church after all.

He smiled as he made his grand entrance into the church.

With each step down the middle of the aisle, he said, “Look Parkworth Pentecostal Church, Evangelist DeAndre Woodside has entered the building.  Y'all ain’t ready for him.”

She smiled as she watched him walk down the aisle.  He was doing his “Y’all ain’t ready for me” walk.  He was so funny.  How could anyone who preached Hell fire and damnation sermons be so stuck on himself?  He needed Jesus.

They finally found a seat close to the front of the church, his choice of course.  He always had to be where he could see and other folk could see him.  She didn’t understand that.  She always took a back seat to everyone else.  That often got her pushed to the side and overlooked, even when she was the one who had done all the work.

He often told her, “You need to stick up for yourself.  Open your mouth and quit letting folk run over you!”

He could be harsh when he wanted to.  He always spoke his mind.  If he hurt your feelings, he would apologize for hurting your feelings, but not for saying what he had said.

He stared at his cousin.  She had that far off look on her face, so he knew that she was thinking about something.  That is all she ever did, was think.  One of these days, she was going to act instead of think.  He knew that he shouldn’t think those kinds of thoughts about his cousin, but he was tired of her crying to him about how someone had hurt her feelings.  She needed to speak up for herself and quit letting folk run over her.  She was a sweet person and would give you the shirt off her back.  But, she had a nasty habit of giving people chance after chance.  So many people had run over her with a Mack truck, and she just forgave them and still tried to be nice to then.  She needed to learn to cut folk off.

“You get two chances with me.  That’s it.”  That was his slogan and he meant every word of it.

His cousin was forever telling him that he was too harsh.  She didn’t know what she was talking about though.  You had to be tough or people would walk all over you.  He tried to soften his stance more than once, but every time that he did, he got walked on.

He sighed.  Maybe I should try to be nicer and people more chances.  Lord, You got to help me do that because I can’t do it on my own.  Lord, while You’re working, could You help Jasmine to not let people walk all over her?

***

The service went the same this Sunday as it had most other Sundays.  The service was exciting, moved quickly, and was energetic.  One of the elders prayed.  Another one read the scripture.  The Praise team led Praise and Worship.  A couple gave their testimony of how God healed their son.  It was an exciting and uplifting testimony.  The dark-skinned elder introduced the choir when it was time for them to sing.

The congregation started clapping like crazy.  A light-skinned lady walked towards the front of the church and stood in front of the choir.  The organist grabbed the microphone that was close to the organ and pulled it towards his mouth.

The organist, Minister Jonathan Pickles, said, “Can you feel God moving?”

The congregation responded back with a rousing, “Yes.”

The organist said, “Pray for us as we sing, Can you feel God moving.”  He pushed the microphone away from his mouth and started playing the song.

The choir started singing.  They were awesome.  About middle way through the song, most of the congregation was standing up, rocking, and clapping with the choir, including DeAndre.  He was enjoying the choir.  The choir director was fun to watch.  She was almost dancing as she directed.  There was a woman at the end of the soprano section jumping up and down as the choir sung the up-tempo song.  Several of the tenors were rocking and clapping harder than any of the other choir members.  The entire four-member elder staff was standing up, clapping, and rocking.  The choir sang the song for a while.

The song was over.  Everyone was clapping and praising the Lord as the organist pulled the microphone over to his mouth once again.

He said, “He’s an awesome God.  How many of you know that God is an awesome God?”

He started playing a slow song.  Before he played five notes, several people stood up and started clapping.  After he played the introduction to the song, he started singing.  He had a very soft, melodic voice.  As he sung, more people stood up.  He finished the verse, and then the choir started to sing the verse.  As the choir sung, more people stood up and started praising the Lord.  Some people were crying.  Some people had their hands raised up.  Some people were crying with their hands raised up.  The worship song took the service to a higher level.