New Heart Church

by Jim Barringer

  Chapter One

  “Good morning,” Danny greeted the eighty or so people who faced him. “Isn’t it a beautiful day in God’s house?”

  Murmurs and nods answered him, and he smiled. “Great. Please stand and worship with me.”

  Jake rapped his drumsticks together four times and we launched into an upbeat song. Practice had gone well; we had felt like we were together, and I was beginning to feel more confident with the music. Danny had told us in practice that how good the music sounded wasn’t the point, but whatever, I didn’t want to play if I wasn’t going to play my best.

  Thankfully, though, we were able to play with energy and precision, treating the church to a display much better than the one they had witnessed last week. I made eye contact with Stanley partway through our set, and winked at him, letting him know I was glad to be up there.

  At the end of the fourth song, we left the stage, and I sat next to Jake a few rows from the back. Danny was talking about blessings, and about how the best of God’s blessings were reserved for the people who knew him and did what he wanted. It was a decent enough talk, and I didn’t quite get why Jake was scribbling notes to himself so furiously. I was content to just listen and appreciate Danny’s way with words.

  We took the stage one final time for a slower, instrumental song at the end of the sermon, giving me a chance to fiddle around a bit and play some ambient, ethereal-sounding riffs. When Danny was done with that, we played an energetic instrumental piece as people filed out of the meeting room, talking and laughing.

  After we finished, I was putting my guitar down when Jake said, “Hey, Eli.”

  “What’s cracking?”

  “A couple of us are going to go out for lunch. Want to come with?”

  Indecision grabbed me, and I chewed on my tongue, not sure what to say. The old excuse that I didn’t have any money wasn’t going to fly anymore, not after last night. Of course, I was still going to give that money back the second I had the chance, but even if I kept it, I wasn’t going to spend it on stuff like fast food.

  “Wait a second,” Jake said. “Stanley told me how to do this. I should have said: come on, we’re going.”

  “Stanley’s sharing his tactics for strong-arming me now? That’s good to know.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s going to be good food. If you make me strong-arm you, then I’ll do what I have to do.”

  “Grand.” I wanted to be annoyed, but it just wouldn’t come. “Mind if I ride with you?”

  “Heck no you can’t ride with me. We’re going to buy you lunch, but we’re going to make you drive yourself.” He burst out laughing. “Follow me.”

  On our way down to the parking lot, I asked, “What’s your story, Jake?”

  He turned toward me, flicking his hair out of his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “Where are you from? How’d you end up here in this building?”

  “Heh. It’s kind of funny.” He pushed open the front door of the building, and I followed him toward the parking lot. “I grew up in North Carolina, kind of a hillbilly actually. Hunting, fishing, hiking, four-wheeling, that was me. Dad got a great job offer in San Antonio; he’s an investment banker and his firm was opening up a new branch office. We packed everything and moved out here, only to have them tell us they were changing their minds and that they weren’t opening the branch at all, but that he could have a job at their branch in Fort Worth if he didn’t mind taking a demotion. He said fine, and we lived here in this building since we didn’t know how long we’d be here and didn’t want to buy a house. Dad stayed here a couple more years, then took a transfer back to North Carolina just a few months ago.”

  “Why’d you stay?”

  We were to his truck by this point; he unlocked it and we both climbed in. “I love Carolina, man, love it like you would never believe. But I haven’t lived there in ten years. All my friends are gone. I love the mountains, but mountains aren’t worth moving someplace for, not when I’d be leaving behind friends as good as the ones I have here.”

  “So you’re willing to build your whole life plans around a couple of people you go to church with?”

  “Yeah, man.” He turned to look at me, starting the truck, which rumbled confidently to life. “That’s what life is about. There’s nothing more important than good friends and people you love, man, nothing. At all. That’s the only thing worth planning around.”

  “Hmm.” I didn’t really know how to respond. “So…what do you do for a job?”

  “Investment banking, same as my dad. I got a master’s in finance from Texas Christian University recently.”

  “Sounds pretty neat.”

  “It’s crazy tedious, unless you really like spreadsheets. But it pays well.” Jake looked both ways and then pulled out of the parking lot. In the rear-view mirror I could see Danny, Elizabeth, and a few others coming out the front door.

  “How well?”

  “I make about a hundred grand a year.”

  My jaw dropped open. “And you still live in an apartment? That’s absurd.”

  “I’m telling you, Eli, I wouldn’t want it any other way. Even if I could have the biggest house on earth, I wouldn’t want it, because it wouldn’t replace the community I have in this building. There’s nowhere else in the world I want to live.”

  I shook my head. “I still can’t believe that.”

  Jake shrugged. “Besides,” he added with a mischievous smirk, “having that kind of money gives me the freedom to be very generous with it. Know what I mean?”

  “It was you! The envelope under my door yesterday, that was you!”

  He chuckled. “Not all of it, no. Everybody pitched in a little, but most of it was mine. I bet you just about pooped your drawers when you saw it.”

  “Take it back. I don’t want your charity.”

  “It’s not charity, Eli. Besides, think of it from my point of view. I make a lot of money. God has blessed me with an amazing job. There’s no way I could possibly spend all the money on myself. What am I going to do with it, if not use it for other people? Don’t get me wrong; everyone in the building gives till it hurts. They buy cars for people, they pay rent for people who are short, they really go out of their way to shower everyone with love. But God has definitely blessed me with the ability to go above and beyond. I’m really grateful for the chance to use my money that way. Don’t insult me by trying to give it back. Don’t deny me my ministry.”

  I had no response when he put it that way, so I merely nodded once. “Alright.” A long minute passed before I added, “Thanks. I really do appreciate it.”

  “I know you need it, Eli.” I tried to object, but he cut me off. “I know you don’t want to think that you need it. You’re fine, you just need a job and then you’ll be standing on your own two feet, etcetera. Everyone says the same words when they’re in that position. But you can’t tell me you didn’t sleep better last night, without having money to worry about.”

  “You’re right,” I admitted. I’d never known anyone who thought of money the way he did. Part of me thought there had to be something wrong with him. He passed up a nice house and the rich life to live in a two-bedroom apartment in the ghetto of Fort Worth? Something was radically different about his decision-making priorities.

  After a few minutes on Interstate 30, we exited and went south a few blocks, ending up at a place called Riscky’s Barbecue. “These Texans know their barbecue,” Jake confided as we pulled the front doors open. “Not as good as North Carolina, mind you. But it’s good stuff anyway.”

  We got set up with a table for eight, and it wasn’t long before the others filed through the door: Danny, Elizabeth, Abbie, Jarrius, and Julius. Oh well; seven was almost eight. Jake ordered some kind of family style meal for all of us, that ended up coming with a bunch of different kinds of barbecue, side items, and rolls. It was so go
od that conversation at the table ceased, by unspoken agreement, while the seven of us chowed down.

  “Dear Jesus, thank you for meat,” Abbie murmured.

  “Amen,” I added, winking at her.

  She smiled back, barbecue sauce smeared all over her mouth and the end of her nose, and I couldn’t help but laugh. It wasn’t the mocking kind of laugh, more the kind that just acknowledged that we were sharing good times together. She grabbed my shirt sleeve, trying to wipe her face on it, and I fake-stabbed her with my fork a few times. “Back, foul sauce beast! Back, I say!”

  She giggled, and we looked up to see that the others were staring at us. I broke into a wide smile. “What?”

  “Y’all are weird,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head and stabbing another piece of brisket.

  “I don’t think we ever claimed otherwise,” I said, looking to Abbie for confirmation.

  “Well, we might have,” she said, grinning. “Who knows.”

  Once we were so full of barbecue that even moving to the front door seemed unlikely and dangerous, we sat back, making small talk for a while. Jake was keen on the idea of going to a Dallas Mavericks basketball game sometime in the coming week, when they would be hosting Jake’s other hometown team, the Charlotte Bobcats. I was interested in going, too; despite growing up just a few hours from Indianapolis and Chicago, I had never been to a professional game, and I was curious to see how it looked in person.

  Half an hour later, our stomachs had deflated a bit and we made for the exits. “Want to ride back with me?” Jarrius asked.

  “Sure, man. I see you all the time but I feel like I barely know you.”

  Julius sat in the back seat of Jarrius’ Escalade. “Everyone here has trucks,” I observed.

  “What, this thing? Got a good deal on it, our cousin sells cars. Plus every black dude drives a black Escalade, you know this.”

  I laughed. “Shows what I know. Indiana was all white hillbillies. This really might be the first time I’ve ever been in a car with a black guy.”

  “Serious?” Jarrius looked sideways at me for a long time, like he was waiting for me to say I was yanking his chain.

  “I’m for real. I graduated high school with two hundred white folks and a Hispanic girl.”

  “Lord have mercy.” He pulled out of the parking lot, shaking his head.

  “That’s one of the great things about this place, though. I’ve really never seen all these different races and cultures just meshing this way. I mean, my college had people from other countries, but the only time we all got together, the only thing we talked about was race.”

  “Kind of like you’re doing now.”

  “Ha. I guess so. But it’s cool. You guys, all of you, just enjoy each other’s company.”

  “That’s cause race isn’t what our relationship is based on. The thing that binds us is Jesus, brother. That’s what it’s all about.”

  “Still, it’s cool to see. And I appreciate you guys being willing to include me in your basketball games, too.”

  “We enjoy it, man. We really do. You’ve given us a chance to show you the love of Christ, so thanks for that too.”

  I nodded. “You guys gonna play again soon?”

  “Maybe later tonight. We’ll come get you if we do.”

  “Thanks.”

  Jarrius pulled up in front of the apartment building and I climbed out, waving to him and Julius, before going back upstairs. I unlocked my door, stepping inside, closing it behind me, and looking at the envelope of Jake’s money on my counter.

  How incredible it was that, of all the places I could have ended up, I had landed, by luck or by some bizarre form of providence, among friends like these. If Danny and Elizabeth weren’t imagining things, if the testimony they had told me the other night really was the truth and God had been providing for them all along, maybe he was doing the same thing for me now. I couldn’t imagine why he would want to do a thing like that, seeing as I hadn’t given him the time of day in my life except to halfheartedly plead for a job last week, but clearly something was up. I could safely say that my curiosity was piqued.