Love In The Unexpected

CHAPTER 3

Amber spent the day working from her hotel room. She had to compile a report with recommendations for the company she was consulting. She also had to have a face to face meeting with them so she would schedule it once the report was compiled. She figured for a medium sized firm she would only need 3 days. She worked through lunch as she always did when her job got intense. She loved what she did so much that when she got into it even lunch could not entice her to stop. At 5 she decided to go and grab some food. As she opened her bag to grab her purse a leaflet fell out. It was the church invitation that the accident guy Luke had given her, she noticed it said they were having a mid-week service that very day starting at 7pm. She was so bored of sitting in her hotel room she thought she might as well go after she ate something. The journey to seven kings took about 40minutes. The traffic on Romford Road was horrendous and she felt like pulling her hair out. She was glad when the  traffic started to clear up. Driving in London was a nightmare but driving in east London was pure torture. It needed pure patience.  She parked in the church parking of the clearly massive church at 5 minutes before 7. She was early so it gave a chance to get a decent seat. She was surprised at the amount of people who seemed to be early. She was led by an usher towards the front, but she wished she could say something as she hated seating at the front. The usher finally led her to the 5th row and as she put her bag down and settled herself the praise and worship started. A voice that sounded familiar spoke to the crowd, she looked up and was surprised to see it was Luke. “Let’s put Jesus at the centre of it all this evening, as we worship God. Jesus is the reason that we are standing here. He is the reason that we are alive. He is the reason that we are saved. The reason that we are never overwhelmed beyond what we can handle. Church I know that I want to make Jesus the centre of it all” He started leading the church in the song Jesus be the centre of it all. Worship lasted for about 40 min and Amber just cried out to God. The word was led by a middle aged man who had a calm aura about him. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” The pastor  spoke softly yet he his voice commanded attention. “Trust God for the season you are in right now, whatever you are going through trust him. He will not give you more than you can bear, trust him, trust him.” The service finished with a prayer Amber closed her eyes and took in the pastors words. Her life was full of so much drama she often felt exasperated. Why was it she never experienced the good seasons in her life? Why was it always the season of pain and crying, she made her way out of the pew with this thought still burdening her heart. As she tried to push through the crowds she heard someone call out her name. “Amber!”

Luke had first noticed her being led to her seat by an usher. She had looked nervous and even from a distance she still possessed certain sadness to her. During worship she had her head down half the time and looked burdened. As the service drew to a close he knew he had to find her. Not for anything sinister after all he was a worship leader soon to be Music Pastor and most importantly engaged. He hardly thought it appropriate for pastors to chase vulnerable looking women in the church with romantic intentions. No the reason he wanted to speak to her was because those sad eyes had been constantly on his mind since he had last seen her 36hours ago. He genuinely believed that they had met for a purpose and he would be more than happy to be used by God to help her. And so he had scurried off the stage and tried to catch up to her. When he drew near he called out her name hoping she would remember him. “Amber!” She turned to him with a look of surprise before smiling and extending her hand to him. He shook it in a polite manner, “How are you today and how did you find the service?” She tried to answer back above the noisy crowd. “I’m alright thanks and the service was great.” They pushed and squeezed through the crowds as they made their way out, with him being stopped and greeted by 1 in every 5 people. Once outside where they could finally hear each other without straining he said, “Amber I hope you don’t take this the wrong way or anything but there’s a coffee shop across the road and I know you refused last time but the offer to talk still holds. It’s just you seemed sad yesterday, and today you seem even sadder. Amber covered her face with one hand in embarrassment; this was what life had come to. She was now a figure to be pitied, that random strangers even felt the need to hear about her life story. “Look,” Amber started, “I’m perfectly fine I was just having a bad day yesterday.” She pasted a smile on her face to demonstrate her point. “Does this face look sad to you?” All of a sudden she felt tears well up in her eyes, she was pathetic, here was someone who was being nice to her and she couldn’t even accept that. She had no friends and no one to talk to and yet refused help when it came to her. “Ok.”  She found herself agreeing. He looked at her surprise reflecting in his eyes, “Ok as in yes?” She laughed at him “Geez I don’t mean to make you look silly but ok means yes.” They quietly laughed and walked to the café . “If this is too personal you don’t have to answer, what do you do for a living? “It’s not too personal; I’m a…, wait a minute why should I make this easy for you, why don’t you take a guess?” She spoke with a playful giggle. “I’m not good with guesses Amber. What if I offend you then you throw your drink in my face.” She laughed again, “hmmm that would be pretty cool considering I’m not one to dispose of my food on people plus I don’t have one.” “But we are about to order coffee so you will have a drink within the next 5 minutes. I’m not even saying it hypothetically it literally happened to me.” Amber could not contain herself. “I’m sorry to laugh but that’s funny, what had you done to deserve it?” “Lets just say it was such a traumatic experience I’m not ready to talk about it.” They continued in friendly banter as they entered costa the coffee place. His phone started to ring and he gave Amber an apologetic look and picked it up. “Nicole I can’t hear you there’s too much noise… ok that’s a bit better. Are you still in church, oh ok, I’m having coffee at the costa across the road. I’m with Amber I told you about her yesterday, yeah she came to church, yeah sure come and say hi, ok then see you in a bit, bye.” He gave another apologetic look “that was my fiancée Nicole she would love to meet you I hope you don’t mind.” Amber felt a slight pang of jealousy and hurt. Then she felt silly for feeling the way she did, of course he had someone. A good looking guy like Luke who stood at 6 foot with dark chestnut hair and piercing beautiful blue eyes would obviously be taken not to mention he was praise and worship leader so in essence he was virtually on display for all the women to see. What did she care anyways, it’s not like she liked him or anyone for that matter. They stood in the queue and ordered their hot drinks before finding a table to sit down. They spoke with ease and Amber felt herself enjoying the conversation, he was one of those people who were easy to converse with not to mention hilarious. Luke looked at her. “So you still haven’t told me what you do. After tonight it’s obvious what I do”. “Fine I’m a business consultant.” She finally resigned. “ Wow I could have guessed that you’ve got that immaculate business look, and you speak in a very concise way kind of like the way business people speak. I so knew you were a business woman.” “Yeah right then why didn’t you say it. Amber-1, Luke- 0.” He burst out laughing. “You are so competitive I wouldn’t brag about it if I were you, I’ve always been the under- dog. I’ll creep up on you when you least expect it and I’ll take the crown home. I can see it already, Luke Brow the under-dog triumphs over Amber.” “You are seriously crazy Luke.  Amber thoroughly enjoyed talking to Luke he was laid back and generally nice. She found the playful side of her personality that had been hidden for years come out when she spoke to him. “Now what’s a coffee without a heart to heart hey so here comes the awkward part Amber. I don’t know what’s going on in your life, but I do know that you have a father who cares for you. 1 peter 1 verse 5 tells you to cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. I hope you know and believe that God loves you and wants the best for you. Sometimes as Christians we get too involved in the things that don’t matter. The things that don’t give us life, we meditate on our worries and our troubles rather than keeping our eyes on him. Just try and remove yourself from the kind of mentality where you see things from a human perspective not looking beyond your burdens. You need to view it from God’s point of view. Look at it as a season.” Amber let his words sink in she didn’t know how. It was all easy for him to say. He clearly didn’t know her life nor her struggles or what she had been through. “You don’t understand what I’ve been through Luke, what I’ve lived through, it’s easy for you to say after all everything is going well in your life.” Exasperated he sighed, “Amber that may be so but remember God knows, Jesus has been through it all he is the only one who can understand. Please trust him with it. Lean on him not your own understanding. Again I don’t know what you are going through but here at Life Ministries we have counsellors who can speak with you and help you find peace in your situation with God’s help. I’m sure you may feel more comfortable speaking to one of them” She looked at him in frustration, “Who said I need counselling, all I need is an ear to listen to me. You’ve done that so that’s great, I can go to my hotel and you can go home knowing you’ve done God a favour and helped a sad woman.” She covered her face, “sorry I don’t know what overcame me that was a bit rude. It’s just the no one understands”.  He patiently looked at her with kind eyes and spoke, “Amber wait I didn’t mean to offend you, you don’t have to have to go to counselling, as I said I don’t know what you are going through all I know is that you look sad. I know that God didn’t create you to walk in a hopeless daze. Please come to bible study on Friday”. She looked at him and said “I don’t know Luke, I just don’t know. “A stunning blonde woman with long natural curly hair walked into the coffee shop. She was dressed in a short denim skirt with leggings, boots, a top and a blazer. Although her attire was casual she pulled it off so well you would almost think she where a model. She looked like the kind of woman who incited hatred from other women for no other reason than her looks. The woman headed straight for their table and Amber found herself starring at the woman who walked with style and grace. She gave Luke a kiss on the chick, “Hey Luke,” she looked at Amber and gave her a warm smile. “You must be Amber, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Luke told me all about the unfortunate accident yesterday. I’m just glad none of you got hurt.” Amber so wanted a reason not to like this woman but she radiated such warmth it was impossible not to smile. She sat down on the extra seat and started to talk to Amber. She asked her about Manchester and how different it was from London. “ I can’t believe you moved back to London Amber. It’s just that for me it would be a dream to move away from London. It’s so hectic here I can’t stand it. Having said that I will never move until God say’s so. He’s put Luke and I in this place for a reason so we just have to see.” “I hear you Nicole; I absolutely loved the peace and solitude in Manchester it’s nothing like London. Being back home though makes me realise how much I’ve also missed the hectic pace of life in London. Its weird but we as human beings can sometimes never be satisfied, I know in a weeks’ time I’ll be moaning about missing Manchester but for now I’m glad to be back” They continued chatting and Amber found herself admiring Nicole. She was so warm friendly, witty and had a natural kindness and humility about her. Before she knew it, it was 10.30 and costa was closing. Amber could not believe she had spent an hour and half chatting. They all scurried out the coffee shop before saying their goodbyes outside.  “Amber I really enjoyed our coffee. Please join Luke and I for dinner on Saturday evening at Luke’s place, we really enjoyed your company tonight. “She gave them both hugs and thanked them for the invitation. Before she walked off Luke stopped her, “Amber I forgot to thank you for not throwing your drink on my face.” He spoke with a smile. Amber looked at him like he was plain crazy before remembering their earlier conversation. “Oh my goodness Amber don’t tell me Luke was going on about his so called traumatic experience. Pay no attention to him.” Nicole interjected. They all laughed as they walked towards their cars. As she got into her car she smiled thinking about the wonderful evening she had just had. In-fact it was the best evening she had spent in a while. She really enjoyed Luke and Nicole’s company. Of-course they had had a rocky start particularly when she had snapped at Luke’s advice to get counselling. The nerve of the guy she had thought, he hardly knew her and he had the nerve to advise her to get church counselling. When she had seen the innocent look on his face, she had realised that he had meant no harm and she had calmed down. Luke really was a nice guy and in an ideal world she may have even liked him, he had gone out of his way to find her after church. Not many people where like that. The minute she thought that she felt guilty for entertaining such thoughts. She chastised herself, after all Nicole had been very warm towards her she had no business thinking such things about an engaged man it was as good as Adultery.