Born with a Purpose

(Jeremiah29: 11- For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.)

“I’m so sorry Reverend White, but it looks like your Prostate cancer is back” Dr. Roberts says with a sad face. “Now there are options this time around we can continue with the Chemotherapy and Go from there. Reverend White looks up at him with a smile and says “Son I don’t think we can beat cancer this time, I could have died 21 years ago but here I am, I asked God for a chance to see my Daughter grow up and here she is about to turn 21, I’m tired of fighting Doctor I’m ready to go meet my Father in Heaven, when he’s ready for me to come.” He than proceeds to get off the exam bed he grabs his jacket than he turns to Dr. Roberts who has tears streaming down his face. “ Hey boy now you stop that crying You’ve done all you can do now let God take the rest if it’s his will than we’ll see each other again, but if his will is for me to die let me go, I’m just tired of fighting this. Dr. Roberts looks up at him and hugs him as tight as he can and says, “ You fought a good fight sir, and you have inspired me thank you.” Reverend White steps back and smiles at him “And Thank you for using your gift son God bless you.” He than walks out of the Hospital. He gets into his car and drives the 30-minute drive home. Mine while on the other side of town Naomi White is driving around with her friends “Girl I cannot wait until I turn 21, My parents can’t stop me I’m going out to party to all I got to do is say I’m going over a church friends house and boom it’s happy hour all night, so are y’all in” just when her friends were going to answer Naomi’s phone begins to ring. She takes it out of her pocket and sees it’s from her mom she presses the green answer button and tells her friends to stay quiet. “Hello, Hi Mama what’s going on” she says as her friends begin playing around in the back of the car “Naomi where are you” her mother says “your father is going to be home any minute and we have to get ready for church, remember your father asked everyone to meet at the church because he has to share some news withy us. “Oh umm If it’s okay with you and Dad I’m going to drive myself down there I’m just at the library studying so once I’m finished I’ll be on my way down there. Naomi says she looks in the back and her friends start passing around some drugs and she attempts to grab some while she’s talking to her mother “Naomi what’s all that noise I hear in the background, I hear a lot of sniffing” her mother waits on the line while her daughter was on the other line doing all types of drugs. “Naomi”  “…”  “NAOMI REBECCA WHITE YOU BETTER ANSWER ME” her mother screams. “Um yea what’s up mom I was just um just um working, hold on mom I’m um kind of busy here. “Naomi get done studying and bring yourself to the church On time please” her mother demands “okay mom I um will see you later” she says to her mother, “okay sweetie I Lo… Beep line disconnected” Naomi was to hooked on getting High that she hung up on her mother who was trying to make sure she was in church that night for the important news. “ So I got to leave in a few cause my Dad wants the entire Church to come in tonight apparently he has some kind of important news that couldn’t wait until I wasn’t out enjoying myself.” She looks at her phone and sees she has about 2 hours, which was perfect cause she didn’t want to show up to church in her current state. “So if we hang out on my birthday I want to invite this guy I’ve been talking to for a bit his name is Liam Frazier.” As her and her friends talk and hang out those 2 hours pass by so quick and she finds herself losing track of time until she receives a very angry text message from her Father who had heard of her behavior on the phone earlier and was wondering where she was. She quickly text him back and tells him she was stuck in traffic and would be to the church soon, she pushes her friend out of the car and speeds to the church in record time and runs inside and finds a empty seat by her mother who looks very furious. “Mom I’m so sorry I’m late I lost track of time” her mother looks at her strangely and sniffs her shirt “you stink here put this jacket on” just as she puts the jacket on her father takes his place in the front of the church and says “ hello everyone I’m so thankful you all could make it here in such short notice, He puts his head down and says when I was 47 years old me and my wife were blessed with a baby girl she was so perfect and I would look at her and cry because when she was born I found out I had Prostate cancer, I wasn’t scared of dying I was just scared of my child growing up without her father so I prayed to God and asked him to restore me and heal me and he did, Now I was in remission for the last 20 years but recently I’ve been feeling tired and drained so I prayed and I went to see my doctor and he ran some test and told me that my Cancer was back.” He looks up and sees all eyes on him everyone had tears in their eyes and he knew what he was about to say next would dry those tears and turn their sadness into anger. “Now I told the doctor I was finished fighting this cancer because I’m ready to go wen my father calls me, But all I ask is for you to all be respectful to your new Pastor my daughter Naomi Rebecca White” Naomi heard her name and new pastor in the same sentence and turned her phone off and looked up at all the faces staring her in her eyes. She could see all the emotions on people’s faces, She saw Happiness and peace on her fathers face but she saw anger and resentment on the entire churches faces and she knew exactly why. When Naomi was growing up she had a lot of friends in the church and everyone loved her but as she got older and her behavior got worse everyone in the church found it strange that she never got in trouble once, even though they all knew what she could get into trouble for many of them have driven pass her on the corner doing drugs and drinking. Now they can understand her parents probably did not know what their daughter was doing but making he r a pastor wasn’t going to stop her behavior and they decided it was about time for her to pay, but before they could say anything she stood up and left. “Um everyone is allowed to go home but please let me and First Lady Mary talk to her. They get into the car and begin driving home. Reverend White decides to speak first “ Mar do you think I’m doing the right thing her, I mean something’s been off with Naomi for a while. His wife looks over at him and says” Yes but do you really think making her the next pastor of the church will make it all go away” “Honestly I wasn’t going to I have a Deacon who would have taken the spot in a heart beat but when Naomi was born I saw that she had a purpose in life and God put the Gift of preaching in her and I can’t stop what he wants okay.” He says to his wife who turns away and just mumbles a tiny “okay”. When they arrive home they are shocked to see Naomi packing her clothes into her car. Her parents instantly park the car and run to try and stop her but it was to late she ran into her car and drove away. Her parents ran into the house to find a letter on the kitchen table that says “Dear Mom and Dad, I can’t keep doing this, as much as I want to be at home right now hugging you guys I just can’t stay there knowing that as soon as my father dies I’ll be the pastor of his Church. I can’t keep living this double life so I left home because if I’m out there no one will hate me anymore, and you two will have less stress in your lives. I’m an addict and an alcoholic. There’s no hope for me I can’t be the pastor of a church too so I chose to leave Church all together I still love you both just forget that I even lived here –Naomi” Her parents look at the letter than at each other than at the house key she left behind and they cried. “Why didn’t she just tell us we could have helped her” her father was so distraught but what his wife was about to tell him would make him furious “Actually honey I knew what she was doing but she begged me not to say anything to you and I’m so sorry” He looks at her in disbelief “Why would you do that, I am your husband she is not in charge if she ask you to do something or keep a secret You don’t do it, you tell me because I am your husband.” She looks at him baffled thinking him out of all would understand why she did what she did but she just smiles and says “okay I am sorry dear.” Naomi on the other hand was currently driving to her boyfriend Liam Frazier’s house. A man she met online about a month ago. She finally arrives at Liam’s house; she parks the car and gets out she than proceeds to knock on his door. He answers the Door high as a kite and really agitated “What do you wa…oh it’s you get in here” he gives her a strange look than walks away. “Hmm he’s definitely not acting like the guy I’ve been talking to for the past month, maybe he’s just tired” she grabs her bags and walks in “You can put your stuff in my room since I guess that’s where you’ll want to sleep.” She gives him a look than puts her bags in the living room knowing she wasn’t going into that room with him “ do you have a guest bedroom or something I much rather sleep by myself.” He walks towards her slowly and says vey angrily “what did you say” she walks closer to him and says in her toughest voice “ I said I am not sleeping in the same room as you so either I sleep down here on the couch or I sleep in the guest room if you have one. I don’t know what you think this is bu…SLAP” before she could even finish what she was saying he slaps her hard across her face, he looks down at her and says “You asked me if you could stay here so your going to abide by my rules or I’ll beat you until you see black and throw you out, this is not your house your only staying here, Got it?” she looks up at him perplex she could tell her silence made him angry beyond measures “I SAID DO YOU HAVE IT?” she looks at him and nods “Good now make me dinner I’m starving” She looks at him than walks away to the kitchen and begins looking for food to make but there wasn’t much of a choice all he had was TV dinners so that was what she made, once she finished “cooking” his dinner she takes it to him “Here’s your dinner it was all I coul……PUNCH” once again before she could finish what she was trying to say he punches her than pushes her to the ground “Didn’t I say MAKE me dinner, why did you heat up my dinner” he yells “I heat it up because it needed to be heated up” she says in defense Liam leaves the kitchen and goes into the living room and throws her clothes out the door after she see’s what he did to her clothes she begins to run but he catches up to her and he grabs her by her hair and says while punching and kicking her “When I say something I expect you to do exactly what I say but you couldn’t even do that so now your out hope someone finds you and runs over you, things were better when I talked to you over the internet, and you might as well go back to those parents of yours cause they are the only ones who want you.” He throws her out of the door and she runs to her car while grabbing her bags. Once she’s in the car she scrambles to get her phone she turns it on and contemplates whether or not to call her parents. She puts her phone back in her bag and drives around until she see’s the bar, she gets out of her car and goes inside when she gets inside she sits down in front of the bartender and puts her head down “Hey there sweetie what can I get you to drink, She looks up slightly and says “Give me whatever will numb the pain of this” she looks up and shows him her face. “Who did this to you, what happened to your face and why aren’t you at home with the Reverend and First Lady Naomi” he says with a worried face as he takes out his phone and calls her parents. Just as they answer she takes the drinks and swallows every single one and runs to her car and drives to a bridge. She gets out the car and sits down on the ledge “ You know what God why do you want me to Preach, I mean come on look at me I don’t even deserve to live, I’ve put my parents through so much and I’ve done so much wrong these past years.” She gets off the ledge and runs to her car and grabs a bag of pills and a bottle of water She than takes the entire bag of pills and puts them in her mouth than uses the water to swallow all the pills. She runs back to the ledge and calls her parents, they pick up after 2 rings “Hello Naomi sweetie where are you Tristan Webber called us and said you came into the bar and you face was badly beaten” She looks at the phone and says “Mom, Dad I just wanted to call and say I’m on the bridge but I just wanted to call and say Goodbye I don’t want to um be the next pastor Dad I don’t deserve to live I’m a disgrace to you and Mom to the church and to God.” “Naomi I picked you as the next pastor because God chose you, He gave you a gift that you can’t get in rid of even if you die you’ll die with that gift he gave you, He had a plan for your life before me and your Mother did” Naomi noticed his voice was coming closer to her. She feels someone embrace her and pull her off the ledge but after that she went out. “Hello Reverend White and First Lady White your daughter took over 9000mg of medication that wasn’t prescribed to her so once she wakes up we would like to admit her for an evaluation you two are allowed to stay or leave. “Thank you so much Doctor “ right after the Doctor leaves Tristan Webber walks in and greets the Whites “I’m so sorry I didn’t stop her I was trying to figure out who did that to her” he says sitting down next to Mrs. White and putting his head in his hands “Tristan thanks to you she’s alive we found her on the ledge of a bridge high on about 900mg of prescribed medication” just as they finish talking the doctor comes out and let’s the family know Naomi was awake. They run to her room and see her sitting there confused, they finally get a good look at her face and see what has become of it and they break down. Naomi looks up and says “Tristan what are you doing here” he walks over to his childhood best friend and gives her a hug “You came into the bar last night what happened to you Naomi I’ve never seen you this low”

The End