The Earring

Book 6 Part 6

"I know what you believe, but He could change your heart through prayer and fasting." He paused "Or He could change mine. Let's spend next weekend in fasting and prayer and then we'll talk again."

David called a cousin who worked for the state and asked him to bring an application for the Chaplain's job by the house. When he brought it, there was a question on it about having been forced to leave a job because of misconduct. The way it was worded, David could justify not telling about the circumstances under which we left Montana, but he would be playing with semantics to do it. That night the chairman of the pulpit committee also called. David told him that we were planning to seek God's face in prayer and fasting and that he would get back with him.

The next day, David put in his application at the prison. He answered the misconduct question in the negative, but said he would divulge the conditions of our departure from Montana in the interview if necessary. Later that week, David met with the deacon who headed up the pulpit committee. He told him the reason we left Montana. The deacon told David that he didn't think that would matter and asked permission to share it with the committee. The next day he called and said the committee didn't want to hear the details. He told them we'd left because of sin but that repentance and restoration were complete. They said that was good enough for them, and they wanted to meet with us anyway.

David told them that we needed to talk, and he would get back to them about a meeting in a week. In the meantime, the warden called and set up an interview with David. When he came home, he told me that there was never a point in the interview when our tenure in Montana came up. He left without telling the warden why he left Rimrock College. He said it didn't seem relevant. The next day, the warden offered David the job.

We prayed and fasted over the weekend. By Monday, we were both certain that God was leading to the prison. David called the pulpit committee and explained that he was withdrawing his name and taking the Chaplain's job. They asked if he would consider being a bi-vocational pastor.

"Can you believe it, Syd?" he asked me. "God wants to use me in ministry. He gave me not one, but two possibilities."

"I know, love." I said. "I told you that God wasn't through with you."

In the end, he took both jobs. The church loved us and never asked any questions about the sin that had led us back to them. Their acceptance of him was cathartic for David. The wounds inflicted by the leadership in Montana were healed by the grace he received from the congregation.

David had a phenomenal five-year ministry at the prison, but I couldn't help but wonder if God couldn't have done more had David been forthcoming about his past. He touched lives by expanding the prison ministry. He used inmate Chaplains to help him spread God's good news about forgiveness. The inmates could identify with his chaplains because they were in prison for crimes that carried life sentences. Still, I wondered if more lives would have been touched had they known that the Chaplain had screwed up, but God still chose to use him. I'll never know the answer to that question.

When opportunities arose, David and I divulged our past to couples who were struggling with adultery, but I followed his lead and never again told anyone about our painful past without first clearing it with him.

#

"See," Faith thought. "God used Daddy and kept his secret. I'm sure my life was easier because of it – Mama's too, probably. She admitted that some people thought it was partially her fault that Daddy strayed. She was protected from more of that. Some secrets are better off left alone."

Still, she couldn't help but wonder how many people Mama might have helped if she had been free to share Daddy's secret.

The next day, Faith went into Mama's study. One shelf contained several unlabeled binders. She pulled one out and dusted it off. It obviously had been on the shelf undisturbed for a long time. The first page began, "This morning I woke up early, as I have for the last two days, with an ache in my heart and my son uppermost on my mind."