Broken Idols - Season 1

Episode 39

Mike stared at the screen of his phone and felt disappointed to hear for the eighth time in a row that Ruky's number was not reachable. He was seated in his ministry shepherd's car from the headquarters after an interview for a leadership position in church. Mike loosened his tie and opened the collar buttons of his shirt. His shepherd, Elder Ghartey, gave him a sideways look and flashed a wry smile.

There was one thing Mike was aware of, from his experience with some young converts he had been tasked in church to disciple, and that was the fact that most of these people usually had unreasonable attachments to their past sins so much that it seemed they had paid the urges too much acclaim to award them personalities. In the first three months, they would wrestle with them until they finally had the experience of the Holy Spirit's dominion to change their hearts. Interestingly, Ruky was the only one like them outside the church he had grown strong affection for, and sadly he seemed to be more mentally abusive towards her than the man called Dee. For the past twenty-four hours, he had been thinking deeply about Ruky and him and any possibilities of being with her. The last time he had discussed her with Elder Ghartey, his shepherd had slammed it with dozens of scriptures and indefinitely closed the chapter, concluding with emphatic rhetorical question: 'Will your congregation want to listen to a pastor whose wife is a club dancer and a used material?' For months, this had been his adopted conviction to motivate further hostility to either drive Ruky to be converted or send her away from him.
To his utmost surprise, he found himself gradually losing his grip on that and beginning to search for Ruky within him. His worry was his uncertainty about the genuineness of his feelings - whether it was love, lust or pity.

"...so that's basically the reason. Do you understand?" Elder Ghartey's voice suddenly awakened Mike's awareness and caused him to turn to look at him dumbly. Elder Ghartey cocked is head at him. "Ah. What is on your mind? You look absentminded. Is there a problem?"

Mike sighed and leaned back in the seat. "Well - I - um - I'm just thinking about a few things - about my life and other things. Just thinking.

Elder Ghartey nodded with a grin. "That's normal. When the big decision comes staring in your face and you are so sure that God is about to do the next thing in the universe with your life - ", he sucked in air noisily and hunched his shoulders in excitement. "Sometimes it feels like you are about to die. It's like suicide - and the word that will kill you is right there on your lips - the same word that will give you an exchanged life that is heavenly and honourable. Michael, don't feel overwhelmed by the work that is about to be given onto you. It is not about you. It's -"

"Elder, do you still think it is impossible for a Christian to marry a non-Christian?" Mike asked abruptly without an apology. Elder Ghartey looked taken aback, but he ignored him. "I don't know why it's a mainstream issue, but - ", he picked up his Bible and flipped through the pages, thumbing through it till he found the scripture he was looking for. "Here! Look! 1st Corinthians chapter 7 verses 10 to 16 - Paul says there is nothing wrong with having an unbelieving wife. Look at this verse that says: 'For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?' How do you explain this?"

Elder Ghartey scowled. "I see. Read the verse 12 aloud and let me show you something."

Mike referred and read, "'But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.'"

"Whose words are those?"

Mike blinked and read the verse twice, and then answered slowly, "Paul's?"

"Not the Lord's," Elder Ghartey replied abruptly without looking at him. "Paul specifically stated the source of the opinion so that nobody would attribute anything to God if it failed them. That's a very dangerous statement to cling yourself to. It's a man's opinion, not God's."

"But it is in the Word. Paul was still confident enough to record it anyway. Isn't that anything to consider?"

Elder Ghartey joined a traffic jam and took advantage of that to examine Mike closely with his prying eyes. "Is it about that girl in your neighbourhood?" Mike pursed his lips. Elder Ghartey narrowed his eyes and stared. "I thought I warned you to stay away from that lady. She will cause your downfall if you give her a chance. Be careful. Very soon you could be a resident minister of any of the new branches in Accra, and associations with such a woman will kill your anointing. Yoo."

"So you think that God cannot destine me to be in her life to win her to Him?"

"Have you died to save mankind before?" Elder Ghartey shouted and startled Mike. "Have you taken someone's sins upon yourself before? Have you ever hanged on a cross for hours before? Please, if the saviour of your soul is the same person who inspired Paul to tell the same Corinthian church not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, then you have to take this more seriously than a dead Apostle's opinion!"

Mike was breathing fast, feeling suddenly afraid to see his shepherd this agitated by him for the first time. "But does being 'unequally yoked with unbelievers' refer to marriage?"

Elder Ghartey leaned across Mike's seat and opened his car. Mike turned to look at the door and then to his shepherd, puzzled by what that meant. "Go and save her! Superman! If you soil your clothes, don't come to me. Don't give your shepherd unnecessary infections."

Mike slowly stepped out of the car, shut the door and slipped through the cars to the pavement before the traffic finally moved. He stared at his feet in silence, feeling offended by his shepherd's reaction and words. He tried Ruky's number again and stamped his foot in anger when it did not go through again.