A Lily Among Thorns

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚃𝚆𝙴𝙻𝚅𝙴

✞ J U L I A N   W E S T B R O O K ✞

Julian scans the church and sees the worshiping crowd he'll soon preach to. It's nothing too large. He rehearses his sermon in his head, running through the key points that are essential to hit, until Sabrina pulls him out of his thoughts with a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey, is my new friend here?" she asks with an eager smile.

Julian suppresses an eye roll and flits his eyes behind Sabrina and to Celai. He isn't surprised that she's still talking to the guy beside her.

"No. She's not," he replies flatly before grabbing his Bible in a way to dismiss Sabrina. She takes the hint and tells him to "lighten up" before she walks away to her seat beside Marquis. Julian doesn't care though. His confusion already progressed to anger and that casted a dangerous jealous spirit on him.

He looks over at Celai once again and watches her laugh at the man she's talking to, her loud joy spreading across the room but missing Julian, who is in desperate need of some. Julian had seen the man around the church before, but he wasn't consistent enough for him to be known.

He and Julian look to be around the same age. His skin is fair and light and he kept rubbing his hand through his light brown coiled hair. He has a similar beard to Julian and a pair of glasses sits over his green eyes. And his most profound feature is that he has a pair of crutches beside him and a cast on the lower half of his leg.

Julian blows out a breath of bitterness and looks away. He knows he's jealous and there isn't anything he can do at the moment besides act like he isn't. He thought to speak to Demi when he first saw Celai and Mystery-Man talking, but God quickly told him not to, so he stayed away.

Instead, he decided to focus on the praise team as they worshiped the Lord with their voices, and while Sabrina distracted him for a moment, he's quickly back on track because no one wants to watch a bitter and jealous pastor preach.

After announcements are given out by Bernard, he gives Julian his cue that it's 'his time to shine,' and they swap places at the pulpit. Julian stands in front of the congregation, not a pinch of fear in him, and begins preaching about Daniel fighting the lions without laying a finger in Daniel 6, ending his message with, "You can perform all the human tactics in the world, none will ever measure up to trusting the Lord. We must be like Daniel— fear nothing and lean on God, even if we're in the lion's den. He's the only one that can guarantee what harms us and what doesn't, not ourselves."

They pray out and people begin leaving little by little. As Julian takes a sip from his water, Bernard comes over to him with a large, proud smile on his face. "You've been cheating on me, son?" he asks.

"Sir?" Julian says, nearly choking on his water.

"I asked if you have been cheating on me with another pastor, because that sermon you preached..." Bernard nods his head, impressed beyond measure. "It was truly something I've never heard of. God was speaking through every word that left your mouth."

Julian beams. "Thank you, sir."

"Yes, the thought of you getting insight from another pastor definitely ran through my mind. I'm very proud of how far the Lord has brought you. You're really coming into your own."

"God gave me a good mentor."

Bernard laughs. "Yes He did. But I did have one critique." He moves behind the pulpit where Julian previously stood. "When you're preaching to the people, it's good to make eye contact as long as it's across the entire church. When I was watching you, you seemed to have your eyes on one particular thing."