BOOK 1: SERENDIPITY / CH. 21:IMPORTANT CHAT
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
They went to John's office, it being close and sound proof.
“I'm supposed to be your counsellor, Sarah. Why does it seem like it's more the other way round now?”
“Urm, because we're friends and you need someone to talk to?”
“And you've got your head screwed on much better than we thought you had a while back.”
“How can I help, Kate?”
“Read this, and give me your impression of the man I was calling my Mr. Right not many hours ago.”
“You've changed your mind?” She read the note and murmured, “The poor girl.”
“What's wrong with the picture, Sarah?”
“It should be her and her fiancé, not her and her parents, even if they're paying for it. She's making a public stand against him, but he's still fighting her and she's losing some battles. Or maybe doesn't realise she is.”
“Sarah, my thoughts were also, that poor wife, trying to reconcile the two. Assuming she is. She might not be. I've just realised that my idea of him being Mr. Right wasn't my idea but his.”
“Oh, Kate, no wonder you wanted to talk. It sounds like you're well and truly over him. I'm glad for you. Are you going to answer Pete?”
“Answer him? I'm planning to give him a big sloppy kiss for saving me from a horrible fate!”
“You're not over-reacting, are you, Kate? Not on the emotional rebound?”
“I don't know. But hey, you can get memories from John, can't you?”
“Yes, you're thinking of trying to send me one?”
“Yes, and if that doesn't work, then have a peek, please.”
“If you say so, Kate,” and she held out her hand.
[This is how I remember typical Pete. {memory}]
“Got it. Nice bloke, steady.”
[This is James. {memory}]
“Ooh, what charisma, fire and conviction. He took you in, didn't he?”
“Yes. He got me, hook line and sinker.”
“But you showed some independent thought talking to Pete, he didn't turn you into a complete worshipper.”
“Only when he dumped me. Sarah, I want to help his daughter.”
“You mean financially or emotionally?”
“Emotionally. I think she's bound to have scars from having him as a father. I wonder if I can find out where she is somehow.”
“Kate, I think you're leaping to conclusions here. She might be fine. She might have had help already. And how would you approach her?”
“You're right. You're right. I think I want to contact her still.”
“OK, just try to be gentle. She should want to honour her father and mother, which is going to be tricky for her.”
“Which reminds me, Sarah. God's proven that he's real. What next?”
“Only a few days ago you'd have said it was just coincidence, Kate. Don't make lifelong commitments based on coincidence.”
“Oh don't be silly, Sarah. You don't need to play devil's advocate. We both know God answered the challenge. It wasn't just John coming through the door but Horrace's explanation that needed to happen just then too. So. What do I do?”
“You need to decide if you want Him to be your God on His terms, on your terms or not at all. I don't recommend the last two of course.”
“What would making Him my God on my terms mean?”
“Well, you make yourself an image of what God is like, or maybe join with others who've already decided, and then worship that. Of course God might not be happy, but you could carry on in your deluded way and try and convince Him that you were right and He was wrong on judgement day. I'd call that a bit of a poor gamble, but lots of people seem to choose it.”
“And what are God's terms exactly?”
“Well, I could tell you, but then I might be making you join one of those groups who've decided already, no matter what God has said.”
“So you're saying that you're keeping it a secret, or that I need to wait for God to tell me?”
“No, sorry Kate, I'm just trying to warn you that you won't get very far if you try to argue, ‘but Sarah told me dot dot dot.’ God has given us three ways we can know Him. Through nature, through His interaction with people through the years as recorded in the Bible, and ultimately through Jesus. Part of the revelation through Jesus is there in the four sections of the Bible, people call them books, called the Gospels, part of it is there in the other books of the New Testament which follow them. Those books are mostly in the form of letters addressing particular problems the early church faced, and of course there's the book of Revelation, which is written in a sort of code.”
“A sort of code? What, you mean it's encrypted?”
“Not really, but it's full of weird symbolism and there are lots of discussions about whether the things it talks about will happen literally or not. Whichever way you take it, it's there to encourage people who possibly would face death that God was going to win in the end, so they shouldn't give up. Oh, I forgot to say there are also people who say the teaching of the church is another way that God reveals himself and yet others who say that fresh revelations from the Holy Spirit are another. But the Bible tells us we need to test both of those against Scripture, which makes sense on the basis that God doesn't change.”
“So, what does the Bible say I need to do, Sarah? This is getting too theoretical.”
“Do you remember what I prayed you'd do just before you challenged God?”
“It basically came down to that I'd admit I've been wrong, trust Jesus, and let Him be in charge, didn't it?”
“Yes, Kate. Those are His terms. Jesus died to save you, not to make you jump through hoops.”
“That's too easy!”
Stolen story; please report.
“Too easy for God the Son to die for you, or too easy for you to trust God? I don't think either are easy, Kate, or at least keeping on trusting God when you're busy with life can be hard.”
“So that's why you kept beating round the bush, because it's easy to understand, and hard to do?”
“And because who you trust is very very important.”
“Don't remind me. I trusted in James and look where it got me!”
“Well, you're close to the right place. Just that little step of telling God something on the lines of 'sorry, You win, I've mucked up my life with me in charge, You be in charge, please.'”
“I think I'm ready for that step.”
“I think the words are better if they come from you, Kate, but I can give you the Sunday school version if you like.”
“Lot of wisdom in that Sunday school. You tell me what you learned there, and I'll improvise after that.”
So Sarah repeated the prayer she'd learned to Kate, who then prayed her own version of it:
“God, You've proved You're there, and I've proved that I shouldn't be trusted with this life. I know I've broken Your rules and rejected You for a long long time. Forgive me, please, I want to turn my back on that way of life and follow You. Thank You that You've paid the cost of this already and there's nothing I can do to earn Your love. Come and be my friend and my king, come into my life teach me what You are like and let me be like I should be. Let me know Your peace and love like Sarah does, I pray.”
“Welcome to the family, Kate!” Sarah said and gave her a hug. [Should I call John? He'd be so happy.] Sarah wondered to herself.
“Sure,” said Kate, “share the happiness, Sarah. I don't feel very different, but it's nice to have made the decision.”
“That's funny,” Sarah laughed, “you get given the ability to read my thoughts but don't feel different.”
[John, I want you!] Sarah mentally shouted.
“Don't look at me so shocked, Kate, you asked for it, after all.”
“But...”
“I still don't know what use this Gift is apart from party tricks, so I don't know why you wanted it, but God answered your prayer.”
John opened the door quietly, and Kate didn't notice.
“But I wasn't asking for your gift, Sarah!”
“No, but you did ask to know God's peace like I do.”
“And Sarah knows God's peace through her gift, Kate.” John said gently. “Welcome to the family, Kate, welcome to the family of God. The Bible tells us He has adopted you as His child and crowned you with love and compassion. He's separated you from your sins as far as the East is from the West and given you an inheritance that can never spoil or fade. Nothing can ever separate you from His love, neither angels, demons or the future. He's made you His and sealed you with the Holy Spirit.”
Then, taking Sarah's hand and Kate's he thought, [Kate, let us show you the peace you asked for. You do this {image}.]
John and Sarah focused on peace together, and Kate joined them.
She became aware of them and thought, [this is amazing, real peace!]
[The peace of God, which is better/greater than understanding.]
And as John and Sarah had before, they felt the infinite unhiding Himself and an overwhelming sense of love and joy lifted them like a flood.
[Welcome, my daughter, my children. Know you are loved.] Then the tide lifted them higher still and then lowered them down and they found themselves back in the mundane world, filled with the knowledge that their Lord was with them forever.
“Just in case you're wondering, Kate,” John clarified, “the peace is there whenever you need it. The visitation isn't the sort of thing you should expect.”
“I'm not that silly, John. If that happened every time, you'd be so blissed out that you'd not be going to meet my old friend Pete and bring me back ridiculously detailed sculptures of my youth.”
“So, are you going to answer his note, Kate?” John asked.
“Answer it? No. I'm going to kidnap you two and make you take me there.”
“Kate, be careful,” warned Sarah, “the computer might get even more worried if you go using words like kidnap.”
“You have reset you wrist unit, haven't you?” Kate asked.
“Oops.”
“Perhaps you should now,” John spoke up, just in case. “Computer, I have verified that this woman is indeed my fiancée Sarah Smith. I am in no danger. I contravened communications ethics earlier and Sarah warned me not to offend again, in an appropriate manner. No genuine threat was made to my safety. Kate's recent use of the word kidnap was not a serious threat, but an expression of her strong desire that we put any plans aside and accompany her. Acknowledge and report status.”
“Acknowledged. Phraseology added to lexicon. Ethical database updated. Security status alert zero. Fire alert status 7,” came from the speakers.
“Expand on fire alert,” instructed John.
“Unconstrained heating apparatus on floor, electronics lab. Minor scorching of floor in progress.”
Kate stuck her head out of the door and yelled, “Horrace, Ivan, there's something burning holes in your lab floor again! Go sort it out, please.”
“Kate,” Sarah asked, “did you know the computer could be corrected or interrogated like that?”
“No. John, how did you find it out?”
“I thought everyone knew.” He hesitated. “I, er saw one of the installation guys doing it, and asked about it.”
“My guess is Horrace doesn't know either, or he could have queried it from his mess of wires,” Sarah said. “I've got an idea. How about I spend a solid week or so finding out about this machine we've got and tell everyone what they can do with it. Or even better, Kate, could you find out why on earth there's no manuals anywhere for it?”
“Oops,” John said, and two pairs of eyes looked at him.
“Expand on ‘Oops’ please, John,” Kate growled.
“The installation guy said, ‘It's all in the manual,’ and I asked, ‘What manual?’ and he said, ‘It's on the computer. Just ask it to display manual.’ But if you didn't know that, I’m not sure you'd find it.”
“Why not?”
“He said that because it was a secure system it wouldn't list stuff under the system directory.”
“I knew that,” said Sarah. “As administrator I can get past that if I need to, but I've never needed to yet. You're saying the geniuses that programmed it put the manual in there, aren't you.”
“I think he said that, yes, along with other documents.”
“OK. Kate, I think what I need to do is tie my beloved here to a suitable piece of furniture and sort through his every memory of this installer guy's informal explanations, then just for fun I'll leave him there. John, you do know what a frustrating time I've been having trying to find out about this computer? I've found all the instructions for the stuff my computer at home can do but nothing, nothing at all about anything cleverer.”
“Sorry, love. You seemed to know how to use it, it never occurred to me there might be something specific to this one.”
“I'll forgive you, just let me roam your memories for a while sometime.”
“Wouldn't that fry your brains, Sarah?” Kate asked.
“Not if John cooperates, no. We can sort of meld our minds and remember things together if we cooperate. We should do it plugged into Janet's machine, she wanted to test us in that mode anyway. But should we get back to the others?”
“Yes, I want to see what they've done to my sculpture.”
“Would you like to tell Ed, or shall we just shock him by you opening the next staff meeting with a prayer?”
“I'm not sure. Let's see how it goes.”
----------------------------------------
“Kate,” Ed noticed, “you're looking a lot less stressed and more at peace. Have you had a good chat with Sarah?”
“Yes, Ed, a very good chat. Not just with her though. Someone more important.”
“More important?” Ed was puzzled.
“Infinitely so, Ed,” Kate grinned. “One of those life changing eternally significant chats.” She gave him a quick hug and span away leaving him doing a very good impression of a goldfish. Janet saw Kate's out of character actions and made her way towards her. “Kate, what's got into you? You're acting like you're in love or something. What gives? Your face is so radiant you're almost glowing, you're prancing about like you've lost about thirty years in the last half an hour. What on earth was that note, a marriage proposal?”
“No, but you could say the note's responsible. Maybe I should just make an announcement. Why not?”
And with that she stood on a chair. “Friends, as you know we've got an office policy of being very open with each other. It makes sense given that we deal with some very sick and disturbed people, and having a shoulder to cry on often helps. You know that. You might not know that that policy didn't start with me, it's always been part of the Institute. Well, in the spirit of openness, and since it's bound to come out sooner or later, I want to share with you a bit of my life. Then you can all go home because I notice it's about that time anyway.
“As you know, I've been a stubborn atheist for all my life. Some insightful comments from young Sarah here earlier this afternoon have made me realise that I was rejecting God not so much out of conviction but out of loyalty to a man that I knew at college. Then a certain three staff members vanished from the building, the computer locked us out and I, I got scared for three of my adopted kids. Out of worry I foolishly challenged God to get me laughing about it in five minutes. He got me laughing in four and a half. To make a complicated story shorter, I realised the guy who'd influenced me for so long was a nasty piece of work and trusting God seemed a much better alternative. I asked Him to give me peace like Sarah here has, and He gave it, complete with the way she gets it. Sorry guys, there are three mind reading Christians on staff now.”
“Halleluia!” called Ed.
“What is this?” Will, one of the other psycho-counsellors asked. “Some kind of revival? First Ed, then Kate of all the unlikely converts. I thought revivals were supposed to start in churches!”
“Just with prayer, Will,” John answered. “Just with prayer.”
“OK folks, home time. I want to go and meet the artist who made my cake. Come on, John, lead the way. Sarah, I presume you want to stay near your intended?”
“I'm coming Kate, don't worry.”