The Makeover

by Vacirca Vaughn

  “I don’t think it’s all that. I just don’t want to go this morning,” Phoenix’s voice was clipped as she stomped around her bedroom.

  “Sure, okay. I knew something was up when the Lord put you on my mind the moment I woke up this morning. I’ll be right down. Wait for me by the door so I know which apartment.”

  Cara hung up before Phoenix could utter a word in protest.

  Less than five minutes later, Cara was stepping off the elevator. Phoenix sighed and prepared herself for a lecture as she led Cara through her front door. “Yeah, hi.”

  Cara laughed and gave her friend a hug. “Don’t be too excited to see me. Leave some excitement for your man.” She looked Phoenix up and down. “Uh huh, nice muumuu. Let’s see what’s going on here.”

  She marched into Phoenix’s apartment as though she owned the place. “Nice apartment. Bedroom is that way?” She pointed down to the bedroom door.

  Phoenix nodded but Cara was already letting herself in. “We ain’t got a lot of time, Girl. Good thing I already fed my husband and baby.” She looked at the pile of clothes on the bed. “Let’s see what we got here.”

  Within a few seconds, she picked out a brown pleated skirt and cream cowl-neck sweater. She went over to Phoenix’s closet and found a pair of chocolate brown leather riding boots. She went over to the shopping bag full of jewelry and picked out a pair of big gold hoops, a wooden necklace and a wood and gold cuff bracelet.

  “Let me fix your hair and redo your makeup,” she smiled at Phoenix.

  Phoenix grudgingly sat on the edge of her bed. “Listen, thanks for coming but I could have just gone next week.”

  “True, but you could be dead next week. Why procrastinate? Besides, after the way you’ve called me to describe your date last night, over and over, with all that kissy-face going on, seems like you need to go to church!”

  Phoenix fanned herself, her worries instantly forgotten. “Yeah, maybe I do need to get to church. I need all the prayer I can get dealing with all this.”

  Cara wiped off Phoenix’s makeup. “After the several times I showed you, why did you layer this makeup on so much? I am going to do it once more because of the time, but you just have to practice, okay? You don’t want to look like a clown.”

  “I tried, Cara. I thought I had it down, but…”

  “Everything seemed to be going wrong this morning, huh?

  “Yeah. I woke up with such a pounding headache and I just couldn’t get it together.”

  “And every excuse for why you shouldn’t go came to mind, right?”

  “I just didn’t feel like it all of a sudden,” Phoenix answered, ignoring Cara’s question.

  “Like I said, it was the enemy trying to stop you.”

  “You really think it’s all that? Why are church folks are always blaming stuff on the devil?”

  “Girl, it’s not always the devil messing stuff up, but the biggest mistake folks make is forgetting that there is a devil that can mess stuff up, if you don’t pay attention. Stop playing. Besides, if it wasn’t all that, God wouldn’t have led me to start praying for you the moment I woke up. Matter of fact, He may have woken me up to pray for you. And as soon as we got dressed and ate, He put it on my heart to call you.”

  Phoenix didn’t want to hurt her friend’s feelings, but she didn’t think it was that serious. “Wow.”

  Cara smirked. “It sounds foolish to you now ‘cause you haven’t been walking in the power of God for a while but when you do, you’ll remember how He works. I ain’t got to explain God to you. You’ll see for yourself soon as you get to know Him again.”

  Phoenix remained silent as she wondered how Cara knew her spiritual situation.

  In a few minutes, Cara had repaired Phoenix’s makeup and curled her hair. “I think if you’re not going to get a relaxer, you should get braids until you grow it out completely. Then you can go natural because you have pretty hair.”

  “You think so?” Phoenix said, wrinkling her nose as she looked up in the mirror. “I thought about it because it would be hassle free, but I didn’t know what to do with it.”

  “I’ll take you to that beautician I told you about this week to see if she can do some nice braids for you. It will be more convenient for working out. You’ll only have to retouch it every few weeks. You don’t like taking care of your hair so that’s the best solution.”

  She helped Phoenix change into her understated but flattering outfit. She glanced at Cara’s own gorgeous suit. “You sure this is alright for church?”

  “Of course, you look nice. And don’t bother looking at my outfit. I have an important luncheon to attend with my husband after service so I am dressed up. Believe me, our church is a come as you are church. Some people are going to be looking like the Royal Family. Others are going to be wearing jeans and a tee shirt. God just wants you to come. This outfit is nice enough to wear to church but still comfortable enough for if you and Paulo hang out afterward. It’s why I suggested it. I am sure he’ll want to hang, since it’s a gorgeous morning.”

  Phoenix smiled. “Did he mention anything to you?”

  “Nope,” Cara batted her eyelashes. “But after last night, why wouldn’t he?”

  And with ten minutes to spare, Cara let herself out while Phoenix quickly put the rest of the garments back in her closet.

  “You look quite pretty this morning,” Paulo said, as Phoenix let him in. He closed the door and quickly pulled her into his arms, kissing her on the cheek. He squeezed her tightly as he inhaled. “You smell good too.”

  “Thank you,” Phoenix managed, as he pulled away. He was wearing a navy blazer, cream button-down shirt, jeans, and brown loafers. “You look handsome.”

  Paulo batted his eyelashes and waved his hand. “Well, I try.”

  Phoenix laughed as she punched his chest. “Man up, Fruitcake.”

  In mock surprise, Paulo grabbed his cheeks. “Fruitcake? Me?” Satisfied that he got a good laugh out of Phoenix, he asked, “Ready for the Word?”

  Phoenix sighed. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Hey, did you have a rough time getting ready for church this morning?” Paulo said as they entered the hallway.

  She spun around. “Cara call you or something?”

  Paulo pursed his lips and shook his head. “No, I haven’t spoken to Cara. I felt led to pray for you this morning as soon as I woke up. I knew Satan was going to try something to keep you from going. He always does. For a minute there, I expected you to call me and cancel.”

  Phoenix couldn’t say a word as he led her to the elevator. What’s with the God Patrol? she thought.

  They arrived for service half an hour early. They decided to have coffee at the sandwich shop across the street from the large theatre where the church held services on West Fifty-First Street. The Times Square Church seemed huge from the outside and Phoenix was nervous about going in. She felt like a kid who had run away from home, whose parent had been searching high and low for her. Of course He knew where to find her, but was waiting for her to come home on her own. She had an urge to run again, afraid that her Father God would be waiting for her with a switch, ready to spank her for forcing Him to wait so long.

  Over coffee and breakfast wraps, Paulo kept smiling at her. Her heart swelled every time his eyes twinkled in her direction. Her stomach quaked as she tried to smile back.

  Paulo reached over and grabbed her hand, kissed her knuckles and stared into her eyes. His smile widened into a grin.

  “What, pray-tell, are you smiling so much about, P.?” Phoenix said, as she sipped on her coffee.

  “I am so happy the Lord brought you here today. I have been praying for weeks and you’ve finally come.”

  “Yeah,” Phoenix said, looking at the table.

  “What’s wrong?” Paulo asked, his eyes narrowed.

  “I don’t know. It’s been so long and I…” Phoenix squirmed in her seat.

  “It’s been so long since…?” Paulo stroked her hand.
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br />   “Since I’ve been to church,” Phoenix responded sheepishly. “I guess I’m afraid of what will happen if I go in there.”

  “Ah,” Paulo said. “Afraid you’ll be struck with lightening for ignoring God for so long?”

  “In a way, yes.”

  “Phoenix, God is a merciful forgiving God. Always ready to receive His children. Remind me to show you the parable about the prodigal son in Luke 15. God always is ready to receive His children that return to Him. Not only will He receive you, but He’ll come running towards you when He sees you coming. You don’t have to worry about being punished or something. Yes, He is a God of judgment but He forgives us when we ask and are prepared to let Him change us through Christ.”

  “I know,” Phoenix said, shaking her head, “but I’ve done so many horrible things…”

  “We all have, Baby. That is why Jesus died.”

  “Again, I know all that, P. I’m just not sure what to expect in there.”

  Paulo glanced at his watch and saw it was eight minutes to ten. “Well, my dear, we are about to find out.”

  Phoenix groaned as he helped her out of her chair.

  After about an hour of worship and praise, with some of the most heart-wrenching, soul-satisfying music Phoenix had heard in a long time, she began to feel less on God’s hit list and more on God’s mercy seat. By the time, tithes had been collected, and announcements had been made, she felt like a visitor in God’s home.

  She wondered if she would feel at home again.

  The beautiful blond pastor, the wife of the Senior Pastor, took her place at the podium and led the congregation in prayer.

  After the prayer, the pastor began. “This message is entitled, ‘What happens if you lose your salt?’ Let us turn now to Matthew 5:13. It says, ‘you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.’ What do you suppose Jesus was saying here?”

  The pastor waited a beat before continuing. “The Lord Jesus calls us to be salt of the earth. What he means is that we, as Christians, are to hold ourselves to a higher standard than the rest of the world. As you can see, Jesus was telling His disciples that although the world of men is rotting, His followers, as Christians, were to function like salt in the world. Why? They alone were different from the world. Like the world, they had also been dead, but from their depravity and spiritual death they had been delivered by the power of God and made alive by their relationship with Christ…”

  “Amen!” a man shouted from Phoenix’s right.

  The pastor began to calmly walk the length of the stage. “When Jesus said, ‘You alone are the salt of the earth,’ this was a high compliment and great encouragement from the lips of the Sovereign Lord of the universe. This statement gives every Christian great dignity and self-esteem—”

  But why would being compared to salt be such a compliment? Phoenix leaned forward, intrigued. She glanced at Paulo who was furiously writing notes in a notebook.

  “—and the only way to understand why it would be an encouragement is to understand the function of salt.” The pastor walked back over to her notes. “First, salt functions as a preservative. When people didn’t have stainless steel refrigerators, people rubbed salt into their meat to keep it from rotting. Much in the same way, we, as Christians are called come into contact with people who are rotting away in their worldly pursuits and to keep them from further being spoiled. Second, salt is an antiseptic. As a means of first aid, it can be applied to a wound. It stings, but the sting proves that the wound is being healed from an infection. As Christians, we may have to be around someone who is wounded and infected by darkness. When we share the Gospel, they may feel a sting, but we are being used by God to stop that darkness from continuing to infect them.”

  “Wow,” Phoenix was amazed that such a powerful correlation could be found in the Bible. She began to think about ways she may have been salt in her own past but couldn’t remember a time since she had met Cedric.

  After the pastor discussed the ways in which salt adds flavor and is a fertilizer, she continued. “And lastly, salt, when used, causes people to become thirsty. Christians should, by their knowledge and actions, cause other people to thirst for Jesus Christ. When we live by God’s Word, and live primarily to bring glory to Jesus, we cause other people to become intrigued with Jesus and to begin thirsting for Him. That is what each and every Christian ought to do. Be as salt.”

  Phoenix touched Paulo’s arm briefly as she leaned over. “You are the saltiest person I’ve ever met,” she whispered into his ear.

  Paulo’s wide smile was only outshined by the light in his eyes. “Well, praise God,” he whispered back.

  Phoenix got lost in Paulo’s profile for a while.

  But the pastor wasn’t done and her next words got Phoenix’s attention. “So how does a Christian lose his or her saltiness, so to speak?”

  Phoenix quickly dug her pen and journal out of her purse.

  “By pursuing the things of this world that are not of God. When we, as Christians, decide to return to the act of conforming to the patterns of the world, we lose our light and our saltiness. When we long for the things that are valued by the world—and put them before our relationship with the Lord—we end up just like the rest of the world again. We can become pleasure-seeking, or materialistic. We can lose our faith or end up repeating behaviors we once knew to be evil. We begin to seek ungodly relationships, relationships we know go against the Word of God. We engage in practices that satisfy our lusts, instead of practices that strengthen our walk with the Lord. Before you know it, you backslide into a life God already delivered you from.”

  Phoenix felt as though God was speaking through this woman pastor right to her. Everyone else in the sanctuary began to slip away and it became only God and Phoenix in that room.

  “But thank God we serve an awesome Savior. He is merciful and just. He is faithful to forgive us, even we end up losing our flavor—our saltiness. Let us turn to a picture of a young man who had lost his flavor, if you will. Please turn to Luke, chapter fifteen, verse eleven, the Parable of the Prodigal Son.”

  Paulo’s jaw dropped as he shook his head in awe. “Father, You are awesome,” he rejoiced. His eyes were shining when he leaned over to whisper, “If that’s not the Lord speaking directly to you, I don’t know what is.”

  “We were just talking about that this morning,” Phoenix’s eyes were wide.

  They both turned back to the pastor as she read the scripture out loud that discussed the story of the man with two sons. She described how the younger son asked his father for his inheritance early, went out into the world and spent it all on earthly pleasures. The pastor described how the young man found himself alone, desperate, without any of his possessions left. The pastor continued, saying, “He ended up working with pigs—the most disgusted animal in Judaic law. The young man became so destitute, that he yearned to eat the food of the filthy animal. Finally remembering that he had a father, the young man humbled himself and returned home, asking for forgiveness and mercy. The father, who had been watching and waiting for his son’s return, received the young son with open arms, throwing a feast in his honor.”

  “So you see,” the beautiful lady pastor reaffirmed, “the young man had gone out, away from his father, trying to spend what his father had for him on the worldly things. He spent it all, leaving him broken and alone, without anything left. The fact that the young man had to take a job feeding pigs represents how low he had fallen. But when he came to his senses, and decided to return home to beg for mercy, his father did not consider any of that. All he did was welcome him back with open arms.”

  The pastor paused as she walked the length of the stage. The congregation continued to cheer for several minutes.

  As Paulo continued to cheer and glorify God, Phoenix struggled with these words that were knocking at the walls of her heart. She sat there,
letting the words fill her, speak to her, touch her, as though they were alive. She wanted to weep. She wanted to run back to her father.

  But she couldn’t.

  She was afraid of what that would mean and what would be expected of her. She had things she still had to do and was afraid that her Father would require her to give those things up. She had no desire to go out and party or have sex or dance in clubs.

  She did, however, need to make Cedric pay. And deep in her heart, she knew that the moment she ran back into her Father’s arms, she would want to let go of her plan.

  A part of her yearned to do just that. But she couldn’t. She had been a doormat all of her life. She had been mistreated and used. If she didn’t fight back this time, the fight would leave her altogether and where would she be then?

  And as these thoughts fought against the Living Word that came straight from the pulpit, Phoenix couldn’t bear the struggle. She laid her head down in her lap and began to weep.

  Paulo gently rubbed her back. The pastor gave the altar call for anyone and everyone in the church who had lost their salt and was afraid to return home to the Father.

  “Please, church, don’t be afraid. I know I am talking to someone this morning. The Lord is right here waiting for you, through Jesus Christ. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to have the answers in your mind or the right plan in your heart…”

  Phoenix’s head snapped up.

  “…just come home to your Father in Heaven who loves you. He’s been watching and waiting with open arms. He’s ready for you. He knows you’ve been hurt by people that promised to love you. He knows you’ve been out there doing things your way and have fallen far lower than you ever thought possible. But He is ready to lift you back to your rightful place. He is ready to restore your inheritance, which is everything He has for you. Please come back home to Jesus.”