I Been In The Storm Too Long

							     I Been In The Storm Too Long


      Sarah had only been saved for a few months and she was not
sure if she was actually saved or not especially after all these
things she had been through. Just yesterday, Sarah was
approached by her ex husband, Ron. He came to her house telling
her that he had not received her child support payments in three
months. He also wanted to let her know that he had met someone
that he had been dating and that they were thinking about getting
married next year. Sarah was already going through a rough time
aside from this bomb that was just dropped on her by Ron. She
had gotten evicted from her apartment because she had lost her job
four months earlier. Sarah had been to interview after interview.
She had filled out numerous applications and still she hadn’t
secured a job yet. You see Sarah thought that with a Master’s
Degree and with twelve years in Cooperate sales under her belt,
she just knew that securing a new job would be a piece of cake, but
Sarah hadn’t been successful as she thought.
      In Sarah’s mind, she was really trying to figure out if getting
saved was the best thing for her to do. She had allowed the devil
to whisper in her ear and tell her that she was better off before she
got saved. Sarah began to ponder over her past life just a few
months prior.
      Meanwhile, John is thinking about the ski trip him and Sarah
had gone on, just one month before. John had been in love with
Sarah every since they were in high school. However, after high
school they had gone their separate ways. John went to college in
Ohio and Sarah went to college in Florida. Somehow, their paths
crossed when moved he moved back to their hometown. You see
John had divorced his wife of seven years and decided to move
back to his hometown to get his self together and to be close to his
family and friends.
       John saw Sarah in the grocery store and they exchanged
numbers. John waited about three days and then he decided that he
would call Sarah and ask her if she would accompany him on a ski
trip to the Appalachian Mountains. When John called Sarah she
was really feeling depressed, down and out. She was in the dumps
about her life and how things had worked out for her. She thought
about her divorce and how her ex husband had hired a detective
and maliciously took her two kids away from her. She thought
about how she had worked at this job for twelve years and she had
trained three young executives, who had by passed her and got the
job that she was qualified for. She thought about how her boss had
just decided for no reason that she was no longer an asset to the
company. Sarah thought about all the meaningless sexual flings
and one night stands she had, looking for love in all the wrong
places and all the wrong faces. She thought about her mother and
father who had abandoned her when she was just a baby and her
adopted mother was now dead. Sarah didn’t have any brothers and
sisters that she knew about. In addition to, this she was about to be
evicted from her apartment. The apartment that was a blessing
when she didn’t have anywhere to go after the courts granted Ron,
her ex husband the house since he had the kids.
       Sarah had no money, no real family and was about to have no
home, either. Sarah was invited to revival by a co-worker of hers.
Lisa had been inviting Sarah to church for months and Sarah had
turned her down. Sarah really felt unworthy to go to church, but
she decided this night to just give it a shot anyway.
       Sarah went to Denny’s got her some dinner than she went
back to her apartment to get dressed for revival. Sarah went to her
closet to find something to wear. When she opened up the door
she saw several business suits but they were all to short she
thought. Sarah had gone out and bought all these short skirts to
temp her boss into giving her the promotion. See Sarah and Mr.
Tyler had an affair a few years ago and Sarah thought that was her
surefire way of getting to the top but it backfired in her face. Sarah
found out that she was not special like Mr. Tyler had said and in
fact this was a usual thing for him. Mr. Tyler was a middle-aged
man, who had been married all of his life and now he felt it was his
time to put some notches in his belt. His wife was more concerned
about her cosmetics business and their children than Mr. Tyler, so
he found his acceptance in the little young naïve executives, who
would come to work in his department. Realizing that he had
something that they wanted, he used his power and position to get
what he wanted. He would promise them, like he did Sarah, that
he would take them higher in the company. Full well knowing that
he didn’t believe in a woman being over a man and when it came
to promotions, he would only promote men.
      Sarah’s life was about to change and she was surely hoping
that something would happen in her life for the good. Sarah went
to this revival with Lisa and initially, Sarah was just sitting there
on the pew, like she was in some type of daze. Really feeling like
she should have stayed at home and went on the internet to do
some more job hunting. When just that moment the minister for
the evening came out of the pulpit and called her up front.
      Sarah had on a black dressed that she had bought for one of
the anniversary party’s from her marriage, it was the only dress she
had that was long enough to wear to church. It was black and it
had the butterfly sleeves and it really made her look like she had
lost a few pounds.
      When the minister called for Sarah to come up to the front,
he said young lady in the black dress. Well Sarah and three other
ladies on her row, were wearing black dresses and several others in
the large congregation. So Sarah didn’t move she didn’t even look
up when the minister said what he said. In that instant he spoke
more specifically, he said young lady in the black dress, looking
down. All of a sudden Sarah realized he was talking to her and she
some how ended up at the front. Sarah didn’t even realize that she
was at the front until she came to her self and the minister was
telling her that she had been in to some devastating situations these
last few months and that she felt like she was all alone and that
GOD didn’t love her and that he really wasn’t concerned about her.
As a matter of fact, Sarah blamed GOD for all the stuff she had
been through her whole life. The minister began to reveal some
things to Sarah about her childhood. Sarah thought that it was just
luck that knew those things but when he said that the LORD had
showed him that she had just recently lost her job and somebody
she had trained had gotten the promotion that she was qualified for
and expecting to get.