Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: MATCH (08/26/21)
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TITLE: Match.God | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lynn Kowal
08/30/21 -
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Frank was a polite man, kind, his eyes sparkled, and he loved Jesus with all of his heart – but he couldn’t get a date. No matter how sincere he was to try and capture the attention of any young woman who looked his way, she never looked back, and he wondered if he were destined to be single for the rest of his life.
He even combed through the 31,000 entries of the phone book to find a match between the partial information that a shy waitress had given to him after they had talked a few times - with what was listed there.
Around the same time as he was looking through the phone book - I had risen to my feet in our small congregation, and, taking a deep breath to help propel my leap of faith - I proclaimed, “The Lord is going to send me a husband,” and sat down again.
What my nerves hadn't let me add, was that I had been in earnest prayer earlier that morning - “Lord, I leave the choice of a husband totally up to you - and if no one ever comes my way - then I submit that to Your will as well.”
“But, Lord,” I continued, “if you do send a husband to me, would you please have him utter this secret code soon after we meet - because I don’t want to be misled any more. The code will be … I have a gift for you …” I continued, thinking of a phrase that would be more difficult than just something like "I am a Christian."
As I prayed, I had an impression of a young man walking our streets looking up at church steeples as if he were searching for something - but I had been fooled twice before when a Christian man professed his love for me - so I was jaded and dismissed what I thought I saw.
Because his own Church was only open twice a month – Frank used the intervening Sundays to travel to our city from his home in a small town 30 miles away – looking for a Church that he could call his own. He eventually discovered our little fellowship – and decided to stay.
The Sunday after the phone book fiasco, he was having lunch by himself when he bowed his head in prayer to surrender any hope he had of ever getting married. He prayed, “Lord, if you want me to be single for the rest of my life, I will serve You by doing that, but please take away this desire for a wife and family.”
A few hours later he attended a seminar that our church was hosting. When it was finished, he stayed to help clean up. I saw him and decided that it was only proper for me to extend a warm Christian welcome to someone who was new - because even though he had seen me in that small church - I couldn’t say the same.
Standing before him, I introduced myself and then asked what Church he went to – thinking that it was mighty neighbourly of a stranger to help do the work.
“Yours,” he replied.
Taken aback, I nevertheless agreed to meet him for lunch two weeks later.
As we enjoyed our meal, I told him that I had done quite a bit of travelling around the cities of the United States, and he replied that he’d travelled quite a bit himself.
I decided to brag by listing the names of the ones that I had been in – then he recited the fact that he had been in one house in his small town, moving to the next house in that same small town, to still another after that.
We both laughed, and just as we were parting, Frank said, “Wait, I have a gift for you.”
Happily married now for 40 years – we are still the perfect match – because before there was Match.com there was Match.God.
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Thank you. :-)
My one piece of red ink would be not to use the topic word so often in your entry, give the reader a little bit of a mystery and maybe use alternate words that allude to the topic.