XCVI

BLESSED ARE THE MEEK, FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH

MATTHEW 5:5

DESTINY KNIGHT-STORM

(INTERVIEW WITH THE DUNCAN’S: Part 1of 2)

I waited with a growing sense of unease for Seven to arrive. It was seven until seven, no pun intended, and the Duncan’s, a couple that I was destined to interview were due at seven o’clock sharp.

Seven Sallie is prone to lose track of time and has often apologized for being late. However, he was with my husband, who is his cousin, Brock Storm. Brock is the most punctual person I have ever met. For example, since we met more than half a decade ago, he and I have gone to some form of fellowship a few hundred times. I can count on one hand the number of times we were less than five minutes early.

Not only was I unsure about doing a profile of relationships again, but I was also the only one at the Sallie residence and the place was locked. Zella, Seven’s wife, was off somewhere with Sevenia, Seven’s daughter. I feared the Duncan’s, who I had only met once over a year ago, arriving before Seven, and me saying, “Please join me on the porch, care for a piece of chewing gum. By the way, I have no idea why Seven isn’t here like he said he would be.

I breathed a sigh of relief when Zella and Sevenia pulled into the driveway. At least we wouldn’t be locked out of the house. Twenty seconds later, Seven and Brock pulled in behind them.

“Hey guys, wait till you hear this,” Seven said, laughing as the four walked to the porch.

“Seven!” Brock barked, “Knock it off!”

Most people would obey an order like that from my husband. He’s built like something between a pro wrestler and an NFL linebacker. But the two cousins were more like brothers, and Brock’s command only seemed to increase Seven’s merriment.

“So, we run into this guy Brock knows,” Seven says, and then pauses to laugh heartily. “Brock ends up witnessing his faith to the fellow, the guy is interested, and the conversation was going good. This friend of Brock’s ends up telling us he’s a wiccan. Brock says…”

Seven paused to laugh some more, a tear popped from his eye and he swiped it. Even though Brock folded his massive arms and scowled, a smile played at his lips.

“Brock puts a hand on his chest to emphasize sincerity,” Seven continued, and demonstrated by placing his own hand on his chest. “He says, oh, we are too.”

Seven once again had to pause for laughter. All of us joined him, if anything, simply over watching his own giddiness.

“That’s when I made a mistake,” Seven said, his hands on his knees, his breath coming in pants. “I said to Brock, he just told us he’s a wiccan, you know, a male witch. Brock’s eyes get as big as saucers, and he says, ‘Oh no Jimmy, I thought you said wicked. I was just acknowledging that we’re all sinners in need of Jesus Christ.’”

“Honey, why did you say you regret correcting Brock?” Zella asked.

“Oh, you know,” he replied with a shrug. “I wanted to see what else he might have said.”

“Daddy!” Sevenia scolded, even though she grinned from ear to ear.

“Sweety, I’ve been telling you for at least a year that you should get your ears checked,” I told Brock. He nodded like a scolded schoolboy. Not wanting to appear like a nagging wife, I added. “So how did Jimmy react?”

“He thought it was funny,” Seven said with a wave of his hand.

“He wants to get together for a deeper discussion,” Brock said happily. Then he put an arm around Seven and squeezed him aggressively to himself. “That’s why I’m not gonna give ole Cuz here a Dutch rub.”

“Lucky for you, ya brute, cause I might just knock ya out,” Seven retorted.

Brock let go of him and pretended to be frightened. Seven puffed out his chest and stalked the bigger man. Brock cowered away from him. Everyone was laughing as the Duncan’s pulled into the driveway.

One thing in particular did excite me about interviewing Dale and Debbie Duncan. They were the couple that had reacquaintance circumstances similar to Brock and me. By that I mean, they both knew each other in one city, and years later crossed paths at a church in another city. I wanted to see how it paralleled with Hubby and me. We sat down to get to know each other before we actually recorded for the podcast.

(Destiny and Brock’s own romance story is told in detail in the e-book Knight Storm by Johnathan Embers)

The thing that struck me first about the Duncan’s is how opposite they initially appeared. They were in their early forties. Dale was lean and tan with wavy blonde hair and blue eyes. He looked like he would have been a quarterback and homecoming king in high school. My speculation was pretty accurate. He was in fact a homecoming king and an all-around jock. But he ran cross country rather than played football.

Debbie appeared as neither an athlete nor a cheerleader. At first she seemed to be simply pale and plain. Her brown hair was long and silky straight, and her large light brown eyes darted with caution. Yet she had a nice smile that matched her husband.

Debbie had a subtle beauty that intensified as you got to know her. She was so sweet, gentle, and soft spoken. Her alabaster skin was baby smooth and the longer I was around her, the more I thought she was really quite lovely. I no longer had fleeting thoughts that she married out of her league.

“We both grew up in Des Moines,” Dale said.

“We were next door neighbors,” Debbie added, and then looked adoringly at Dale. He smiled at her and returned a gaze of fondness. I could tell right off that these two were the real deal. They had a deep bond and genuine love for each other. “Our moms were pretty good friends, even though they were very different. So we were playmates before we even started preschool.”

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know Debbie,” Dale chuckled.

“But he was popular, and I was a nerd,” Debbie said sadly. “But he always looked out for me, sort of, for lack of a better description, like a big brother.”

“I think that’s one of the reasons it took so long for us to come around to each other,” Dale said. “You know, I mean, romantically speaking.”

“Actually, more like you to coming around to me,” she said with a shy smile. “I had a big crush on Dale ever since the second or third grade. Then during Thanksgiving break our freshman year in high school, it turned into love one afternoon and has only deepened since.”

“What happened that one afternoon?” I asked.

“Mango ball,” Debbie replied and then giggled.

“What’s a mango ball?” I asked with a frown.

“It was a game we used to play in the neighborhood,” Dale explained. “It was basically dodgeball with a few minor rule changes. There was only one playground ball, and usually anywhere from six to twelve of us playing. It was every man for himself, the last one not out won.”

“I was horrible at sports,” Debbie said, and almost seemed to blush. “But I used to play in neighborhood games just to be a part of the other kids. I never cared about winning or losing. But the older we got, everyone seemed to be getting cooler and more sophisticated, and I just kept getting more awkward and geeky.”

“No,” Dale interjected. “You only got more sweet and beautiful. Plus, you wouldn’t have been quite so clumsy playing games if it hadn’t been for your mother never letting you leave the house without a skirt or dress on.”

“My family belonged to a really conservative church when I was growing up,” Debbie said.

“And my family only went to church at Christmas and Easter, and for weddings and funerals,” Dale chuckled.

“Anyway, that special afternoon didn’t start of so special,” Debbie said and then looked at Dale.

“I accidently drilled Debbie in the side of the head with the playground ball,” Dale said sheepishly. “I was actually throwing at my best friend Seth Markle, but the ball slipped from my grasp right when I tried to throw a fastball.”

“It didn’t really hurt that much,” Debbie said. “But it jarred me, and I did a three step little jig and fell to my knees. What hurt was everyone rolling with laughter.”

“When the game was over,” Dale said. “Debbie quietly told me she was going home. Not at all in the ‘feeling sorry for yourself, I’m taking my ball and going home’ manner. It was in a defeated, lonely sort of way. It broke my heart.”

“Even as kids, Dale wasn’t like most boys,” Debbie said. “He always stuck up for the underdog. I went to parochial school through the eighth grade. When I started high school as a freshman, it was the first time we went to school together. If it hadn’t been for my friendship with Dale, which made me friends with the other kids in the neighborhood, I would have most definitely been bullied in school. Ironically, I was picked on at my religious school, but not at my secular high school. And it was all because of Dale.”

Dale dipped his head with what seemed to be genuine modesty.

“So when I told Dale I was going home, I turned and began to jog away,” she said. “Dale ran after me and grabbed the crook of my arm. Then his hand slid down my arm, and he held my hand and pulled me back to the backyard. His touch like that sent shivers up and down my spine.

“He asked me to please stay. He said to stick by him and he promised he wouldn’t get me out unless it came down to just him and me. It did. And in mango ball, you could only take two steps if you had the ball. Dale was fifteen feet away, and there was no way I was going to get him out. He was too fast, and I threw too soft.

“Then Seth called his name and he looked over at him. Several kids yelled throw, so I did. It was a lame throw, and it hit Dale right in his stomach. It should have been an easy catch, making me out, but he only made a feeble attempt to catch it and missed. All the kids cheered, ran to me, and lifted me above their shoulders. It was the most thrilling moment of my childhood!

“After a minute, I looked at Dale. He was grinning from ear to ear, and he winked at me. It was then that I fell head over heels in love with him. Even though he seemed to change beautiful girlfriends every few months, I never stopped loving him. Every time we talked, I literally felt weak in the knees.

“I wouldn’t realize my love was reciprocated for another decade.”

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT PART 16)

A religion that would lead us to be careless of human needs, sufferings, or rights, is a spurious religion.

It is because men take upon themselves the name of Christ, while in life they deny His character, that Christianity has so little power in the world. The name of the Lord is blasphemed because of these things.

Search heaven and earth, and there is no truth revealed more powerful than that which is made manifest in works of mercy to those who need our sympathy and aid.

“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.” Matthew 7:14

The path I have set before you, Jesus said, is narrow; the gate is difficult of entrance, for the golden rule excludes all pride and self-seeking.

There is, indeed, a wider road; but its end is destruction.

If you would climb the path of spiritual life, you must constantly ascend; for it is an upward way. You must go with the few; for the multitude will choose the downward path.

In order to go in the path that leads to destruction , there is no need of searching for the way; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad. Self-love, and self-righteous opinions naturally turn into the path that ends in eternal death.

He who would serve Christ cannot follow the world’s opinions or meet the world’s standards.

Heaven’s path is too narrow for rank and riches to ride. Too narrow for the play of self-centered ambition, too steep and rugged for lovers of ease to climb.

Selfish plans may present flattering promises and hold out the hope of enjoyment, but we shall find that our happiness is poisoned and our life embittered by hopes that center in self.

Every act of self-denial for Jesus’s sake, every trial well endured, every victory gained over temptation, is a step in the march to glory of final victory. If we take Christ as our guide, He will lead us safely.

“Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” Luke 13:24

The Christian life is a battle and a march. But the victory to be gained is not won by human power. The field of conflict is the domain of the heart.

The battle which we have to fight—the greatest battle ever fought by humanity—is the surrender of self to the will of God.

We cannot, of ourselves, conquer the evil desires and habits that strive for the mastery.

Jesus desires us to have the mastery over ourselves, our own will and ways. But He cannot work in us without our consent and co-operation.

The divine Spirit works through the faculties and powers given to humans. Our energies are required to co-operate with God.

The victory is not won without much earnest prayer, without the humbling of self at every step.

Our will is not to be forced into co-operation with divine agencies, but must be voluntarily submitted. The will must be placed on the side of God’s will.

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5.