the day.”
“How come we’re not going the full hour?”
“We did.” Sabrina looked at her watch. “An hour and three minutes, to be exact.”
“Really? It didn’t feel that long today.”
“You seem to enjoy the distance work better than the sprints.”
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
“I’m glad, because you’re running in your first 5K this weekend.”
“Huh?”
“You heard me. There’s a 5K downtown on Saturday. I’ve already registered you. It’ll be fun.”
“Fun?” Brandy didn’t look at all convinced. “Well, yeah, okay, I’ll give it a go.”
“Yes, you will. Then, three weeks after that I’ve got you signed up for another one, a bigger one. It’s in Columbia, up near Nashville, very prestigious. This will be a nice warm-up.”
Brandy puffed her cheeks full of air, then blew out. “Bigger one. Cool.”
“You don’t run from a challenge.” Sabrina closed her book and jumped down from the retaining wall. “You’re going to make a great distance runner if you stick with it. Maybe you can finish what I wasn’t able to.”
Brandy stopped her pacing and studied Sabrina for a moment, her nose ring shining in the glow of the streetlight. “I’d really like it if I could do that.”
Sabrina’s heart came up into her throat, and even after she watched Brandy jog back toward home, she still found it difficult to swallow. “Maybe I would, too.” And maybe she truly would.
She went up the stairs to her room and picked up her phone to do a quick email check before taking a shower. The top email on the list was from Rita Leyva. Oops. Guess I never emailed her back. Sabrina clicked it open.
Dear Sabrina,
I haven’t heard back from you, so I wanted to double-check and make certain you received my previous email re applying for a position with Bridges. I am very anxious to connect with you as soon as possible, as I am leaving for South Africa at the end of the week. I would love to speak with you before then when you have a few available minutes.
In Him,
Rita Leyva
Sabrina hadn’t given the previous email another thought. She supposed she should call Rita back and at least thank her for the confidence, but she didn’t have time to deal with it right now. She hurried into the shower to get ready for her eight o’clock class and the rest of the day.
Hours later and back at her desk after three classes and a four-hour shift at work, she decided it was best to go ahead and make the call. Best to get it over and done with, and in spite of the fact that she wasn’t really interested in the offer, she didn’t want to seem rude or ungrateful. She found Rita’s number and called, already formulating her polite decline. But the conversation quickly veered out of her control. Rita Leyva proved to be a much more dynamic person than Sabrina had assumed and she was finding it hard to get her to take no for an answer. Her excitement bubbled over any obstacles, effectively drowning the subtle protests that Sabrina offered. Finally, Sabrina decided the only tactic that would work was the absolute blunt truth.
“Mrs. Leyva, I’ll just be honest with you. Truth is, for most of my life—including that time when I spoke to that youth group and wrote that silly devotional—I was utterly convinced that God had called me to be a public speaker as a ministry. I believed it with every fiber of my being.”
“That devotional was not silly. It was raw, but it was powerful. Just like your speaking. That’s why I’m so convinced—”
“I was wrong.”
The declaration hung in the air between them, leaving nothing but silence for the space of several heartbeats. “But you weren’t.”
“Don’t you understand? I either didn’t hear God after all, or I misunderstood Him so badly that I am obviously not the kind of person you need working in your mission organization. I thought God had called me to be a missionary via my platform as an Olympic medalist. Mrs. Leyva, there is no Olympic medal
“How come we’re not going the full hour?”
“We did.” Sabrina looked at her watch. “An hour and three minutes, to be exact.”
“Really? It didn’t feel that long today.”
“You seem to enjoy the distance work better than the sprints.”
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
“I’m glad, because you’re running in your first 5K this weekend.”
“Huh?”
“You heard me. There’s a 5K downtown on Saturday. I’ve already registered you. It’ll be fun.”
“Fun?” Brandy didn’t look at all convinced. “Well, yeah, okay, I’ll give it a go.”
“Yes, you will. Then, three weeks after that I’ve got you signed up for another one, a bigger one. It’s in Columbia, up near Nashville, very prestigious. This will be a nice warm-up.”
Brandy puffed her cheeks full of air, then blew out. “Bigger one. Cool.”
“You don’t run from a challenge.” Sabrina closed her book and jumped down from the retaining wall. “You’re going to make a great distance runner if you stick with it. Maybe you can finish what I wasn’t able to.”
Brandy stopped her pacing and studied Sabrina for a moment, her nose ring shining in the glow of the streetlight. “I’d really like it if I could do that.”
Sabrina’s heart came up into her throat, and even after she watched Brandy jog back toward home, she still found it difficult to swallow. “Maybe I would, too.” And maybe she truly would.
She went up the stairs to her room and picked up her phone to do a quick email check before taking a shower. The top email on the list was from Rita Leyva. Oops. Guess I never emailed her back. Sabrina clicked it open.
Dear Sabrina,
I haven’t heard back from you, so I wanted to double-check and make certain you received my previous email re applying for a position with Bridges. I am very anxious to connect with you as soon as possible, as I am leaving for South Africa at the end of the week. I would love to speak with you before then when you have a few available minutes.
In Him,
Rita Leyva
Sabrina hadn’t given the previous email another thought. She supposed she should call Rita back and at least thank her for the confidence, but she didn’t have time to deal with it right now. She hurried into the shower to get ready for her eight o’clock class and the rest of the day.
Hours later and back at her desk after three classes and a four-hour shift at work, she decided it was best to go ahead and make the call. Best to get it over and done with, and in spite of the fact that she wasn’t really interested in the offer, she didn’t want to seem rude or ungrateful. She found Rita’s number and called, already formulating her polite decline. But the conversation quickly veered out of her control. Rita Leyva proved to be a much more dynamic person than Sabrina had assumed and she was finding it hard to get her to take no for an answer. Her excitement bubbled over any obstacles, effectively drowning the subtle protests that Sabrina offered. Finally, Sabrina decided the only tactic that would work was the absolute blunt truth.
“Mrs. Leyva, I’ll just be honest with you. Truth is, for most of my life—including that time when I spoke to that youth group and wrote that silly devotional—I was utterly convinced that God had called me to be a public speaker as a ministry. I believed it with every fiber of my being.”
“That devotional was not silly. It was raw, but it was powerful. Just like your speaking. That’s why I’m so convinced—”
“I was wrong.”
The declaration hung in the air between them, leaving nothing but silence for the space of several heartbeats. “But you weren’t.”
“Don’t you understand? I either didn’t hear God after all, or I misunderstood Him so badly that I am obviously not the kind of person you need working in your mission organization. I thought God had called me to be a missionary via my platform as an Olympic medalist. Mrs. Leyva, there is no Olympic medal
Similar Books
