Kennedy Stern Christian Suspense Complete Box Set (Books 1-9)

Turbulence-2-12

The skyjackers had been thwarted. That’s what mattered. Willow laughed at something Ray said, but Kennedy could only hear their tentatively joyful conversation as though through a fog.

Her roommate had almost died. Everyone had been close to death, but Willow had been a foot away from a loaded gun. If it hadn’t been for Grandma Lucy ...

“Where are you going?” Willow asked when Kennedy got up from her seat.

“I think the captain wants everyone to stay buckled,” Ray told her.

Kennedy wasn’t listening. She made her way to the back of the plane, where Grandma Lucy sat in the corner, hunched over her Bible. She looked up with a smile before Kennedy sat down.

“I was hoping for a chance to chat with you.” She moved her purse so Kennedy could settle in beside her. “I’ve been reading. Here in Isaiah.” She pointed to some verses in her large print Bible.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath, Kennedy read to herself, nodding as if she fully understood whatever spiritual mysteries Grandma Lucy expected her to find.

“Keep going,” she said. “Read it out loud.”

Kennedy took in a breath. “The heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.” Well, she had certainly seen God’s salvation today, seen it in a way she would never forget. But something had been bothering her ever since it happened. Something she had to know now.

She looked up from the book. “Were you sure the gun wouldn’t fire?”

Grandma Lucy slipped her spectacles back up her nose. “No. I wasn’t. But I had a peace.” She stared at Kennedy pointedly. “Did you?”

“Know about the gun?” she asked.

Grandma Lucy shook her head. “No. Did you have that peace?”

Kennedy thought back to the darkness, the overwhelming despair, the guilt she’d experienced when Willow stood at the end of the barrel. She stared at her lap. “No. I didn’t.”

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Grandma Lucy tilted up her chin. “God works in each of us in different ways. For me, God used our little excitement today to teach me that I’m ready to go home. I’ve had my share of health issues lately. Twice now I’ve surprised the doctors by leaving the hospital in my own car and not in a hearse. And both of those times, I struggled. Told God he couldn’t take me home yet. I still had to see my grandson saved. I still have to be here to pray for him through whatever trials God uses to bring him to salvation.”

She stared past Kennedy’s shoulder with a faraway look in her eye.

“When I stared at that gun, though, that’s when I knew. The battle for Ian’s soul, the battle I’ve been fighting restlessly for years now, that battle was never mine to begin with. That battle belongs to the Lord and no one else. If he wants me to stay put and pray for my grandson, love him, witness to him, then bless the Lord, oh my soul, because I’m longing to wrap my arms around him the day he finally gives his life over to Christ. But if God calls me to heaven first, then I figure I’ll just go on praying for Ian there. I don’t see why I can’t. That was what God wanted to teach me today. I wonder what lesson he had in store for you.”

Kennedy fixed her eyes on the open Bible before her. Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have taken my instruction to heart: Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals or be terrified by their insults.

She took a breath and tried to collect her thoughts. “I think the worst part about today was knowing that if Willow died and went to hell, I’d have to live wondering if I could have done something. If it was my fault that she never learned about the gospel.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe all the excuses I made. How scared I was of looking dumb or being called judgmental.”

Kennedy was ashamed to admit her shortcomings to someone so bold and obedient, but Grandma Lucy just smiled and took Kennedy’s hand in hers. “Peter was scared too, remember? But then the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, came and settled on him, and the very first time he opened his mouth to preach, the Bible says three thousand new believers were added to their number that day. He wasn’t anything more than a simple fisherman with a very good habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and that’s how God used him. So just imagine what he can do with you.”

Kennedy sighed. “I’m not sure I’ll ever find that kind of power or boldness.”

“That’s because you’re still relying on your own strength. Trust me. I lived my life that way for decades. It wasn’t until I followed God’s call to Afghanistan that I finally learned what it was to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to surrender not just my eternal life to him, but my day-to-day life as well. Every hour, every minute submitted to him. What do you want me to do today, Jesus? Who do you want me to tell about you? That’s what I’d ask him. He gave me small assignments at first. Maybe he told me to share a little bit of my lunch with a woman on the streets. And I did that, and then the next time he told me something, it would be a little more out of my comfort zone, like maybe he wanted me to invite two prostitutes into my home and give them a place to sleep. And each time I obeyed, I found a deeper sense of peace. It wasn’t that God needed me to reach out to these people. He could have used anybody. But he was inviting me to join him in his work. I stopped looking at it as the relationship between a master and a servant and started to think of it as the partnership between two good friends, both working together for the same goal. He stretched me so much overseas. Taught me what it means to live by the Spirit. I know you’re born again, but have you surrendered your life to the Spirit?”

She gazed at Kennedy so pointedly Kennedy stared at her hands in her lap. “I’m not really sure. I think so. I mean, I’m doing my best to read the Bible each day. Remembering to pray.”

Grandma Lucy smiled gently. “Let me tell you a story. I got married over fifty years ago. My husband isn’t with me anymore, but when we were on our honeymoon, do you think we had to schedule time to spend together?”

Kennedy couldn’t figure out what point she was trying to make. “No.”

“Of course not. Now, I can tell you there were times in our marriage where we did have to make a conscious effort to connect with each other, but for the most part, we spent time together because we wanted to. Do you see the difference?” she asked and went on without waiting for an answer. “You probably grew up hearing your Sunday school teachers and pastors telling you that to grow in your walk with the Lord, you need to read your Bible and pray every day. Am I right?”

Kennedy nodded.

“And that’s true. Without prayer and Scripture, we’re not going to mature. But I think what happens is we think of the spiritual disciplines, things like prayer and Bible study, as the definition of spiritual maturity, not the means to grow closer to Jesus. Do you see the difference?”

“I guess so,” Kennedy answered even though Grandma Lucy’s words didn’t seem to connect with her brain in any meaningful way.

Grandma Lucy smiled softly. “I just want you to know that God has so much to offer you. Peace and joy and the riches of his presence. But we get so distracted. We think that if we check morning devotions off our to-do list, we’ve done everything God expects us to do for the day. It’s human nature. I’m not picking on you personally. That’s just the way we’re programmed. But the Christian walk isn’t about a to-do list. Tell me something. If you set aside three hours every single day to study the Bible, do you think you would grow in your faith?”

“Yeah,” Kennedy replied tentatively, “but I don’t have time to ...”

“I didn’t ask about time,” Grandma Lucy interrupted. “I just asked if you think it would change your everyday life.”

“I’m sure it would.”

Grandma Lucy leveled her gaze. “Why?”

“Why?” Kennedy repeated. “Because it’s ... Because when you ...”

A smile broke through Grandma Lucy’s wrinkled face. “Because we all think that the more time we spend with God, the holier we become, right?”

Kennedy was confused. “Yeah, but isn’t that the way it works?”

Another soft smile. “Let me tell you something else. When I first got married, my husband and I both had full-time jobs. I was in real estate at the time. My husband was a teacher. I was busy in the evenings. He left for school at six in the morning. Sometimes we’d go a full week without sitting down for a single meal together. Tell me something. Can you grow close to your spouse with a schedule like that?”

Kennedy frowned. “I guess not.”

Grandma Lucy wagged her finger playfully. “You’d think so, right? But actually, that was one of the most intimate times in our relationship. We were so busy we knew we had to put in the extra effort to connect with each other. We’d write letters to each other back and forth in a diary. He’d come home from work and leave me a note while I was out showing houses. In the morning when I woke up, before I started my day’s paperwork I’d fill page after page of ridiculous, sappy mush for him to read when he came home in the afternoon.”

“Oh.” Kennedy had no idea what any of this had to do with her own personal walk with Christ. Maybe Grandma Lucy was just rambling and had lost her original thought.

“Years later when the kids were grown, my husband lost his teaching job and decided to drive trucks. We sold the house, everything. For twelve months, we ate at rest stops, slept in little pullouts, and traveled the country together. Every waking minute, there he was. And want me to tell you something? It tore our marriage apart. By the end of the third month, we couldn’t stand each other. The day he delivered his last load was the day I filed for divorce. I’m not saying it was the right thing for me to do. I’m not pretending to be proud of my decision, but that season is what ultimately destroyed us.”

By now, Kennedy didn’t know what point she was trying to make. Apparently, Grandma Lucy didn’t either. She pouted and glanced around the cabin as if looking for some sort of cue card.

“It was when I left my husband that I realized just how terrible I was at being a Christian on my own. I was a disciplined believer, prayed out of a check list and read three or four chapters from the Bible every single night without fail. But that didn’t mean I was surrendered to God the other twenty-three and a half hours of the day. Do you know what the Bible says Christian maturity looks like?” She raced ahead without letting Kennedy respond. “The Bible says they’ll know we are Christians by our love. Plain and simple. Not how complicated our prayer list is. Not how many times we’ve read the Bible cover to cover or how long we spend studying it each day. I’ll tell you what. There are some deplorable people who I’m sure have read the Bible more than I have and use it to destroy others.”

She shook her head. “If we don’t have love for each other, what good is all the Bible studying or all the devotional time in the world? What’s all that learning doing for us if we’re not allowing God’s Word to change us? Transform us?”

“Not much, I guess.” Kennedy still couldn’t tell if she was being reprimanded like a naughty pupil or inspired like a boxer about to jump into the ring.

“And that’s where the Holy Spirit comes in.” Grandma Lucy’s eyes lit, and she nodded sagely, apparently glad to have discovered her train of thought once more. “He’s there, waiting for you to fully surrender, waiting for you to invite him to take full control of your life.” She stared pointedly at Kennedy. “You strike me as a competent, capable young woman. You’re smart, you got yourself into Harvard, you’re doing well in your studies. But are you relying on God each and every day? Are you making him the focus of your life? Are you studying to be pleasing to him, or are you studying because you get a thrill from that sense of achievement? When you think about becoming a doctor, is it so you can fulfill the call God has on your life, or is it so you can prove to yourself that you can succeed?”