Free From – Chapter 29 – July 29th

I hope you will join me this month as we JOURNEY each day through our short story. It is about finding FREEDOM in the midst of all the captivating pieces in life that steal our peace which we need FREE FROM!

FREE FROM
July 29, 2021

Psalm 23:2-, ‘He offers a resting place for me in His luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where He restores and revives my life. He opens before me the right path and leads me along in His footsteps of righteousness.’ (TPT)

Chapter 29

Trace begged for Chuck E. Cheese, but surprisingly cooperated when Blayze grimaced, suggesting Red Robin instead and promised their famous mudpie if he ate a good meal, adding the arcade and tabletop video games as enticement. He simply just seemed relieved and happy to be safe and saved. Legend was trying to imagine in his head what Trace had already experienced in his little life, the turmoil, the situations, the atmosphere he had been subjected to. If Legend had anything to say about it, never again.
Annie seemed just as peaceful, and Legend wondered for the gazillionth time what life had been like for her for the missing years. She quietly admitted while driving to pick up Trace that the fling had been flung as soon as Legend found out, and the chase ended almost before it began. She had never again dated. Relationships were too complicated, she said, and too costly. Legend would have soared if he hadn’t been tethered inside a car just then.
So, they sat huddled around a table filled with burgers, fries and sodas, and Legend felt as if he had died and passed on to heaven. All the days, all the nights, huddled against a brick building on a city sidewalk, he had wondered if he’d ever eat food in the midst of fellowship like this again. Not only was he now but he was eating like a king at a table with most of his family. Unbelievable.
Blayze took a healthy bite; talking around the food in his mouth, he asked his dad what prison had been like. He wasn’t shy, so neither was Legend. He wanted to know about the guys Legend called his brothers and was enthralled with a couple stories Legend related. “But if you’re doing so good, Dad,” Blayze finally asked, “why are the streets home to you? I mean, that doesn’t make sense to me. Hasn’t it been long enough, punishing yourself, or playing victim, or just accepting homelessness as an acceptable act of sacrifice?”
Annie coughed. “That’s enough, son,” she said sternly, giving the mother look.
But Legend interrupted her. “No, Annie, it’s fine. He has a right to ask that. In fact, Blayze, there’s not a thing you can’t ask me, no boundaries, k? You deserve to know the truth.” Again, he was impressed at the advanced sensitivity and decisive directness his son possessed.
“So, Blayze, for the first year, eighteen months, I lived at a street mission. I helped out with projects to earn my keep and they entrusted me with additional responsibilities. I bettered myself and the mission and the people I served. But I wanted more. Not just for myself but for others I could possibly encourage not to end up like me, making poor choices and letting life dwindle through their fingers like sand as I did.
“Where better to do that, right, than being in the thick of things, rubbing shoulders with those who are at a crossroad and making decisions for their futures whether they realize it or not. So I left the mission and I have been on the streets for the most part since then. I do odd jobs and I enjoy a motel from time to time. Every once in a while, I treat myself to a hot cup of coffee from McDonalds or 7-11, and I know the $1 menu by heart at every fast-food joint downtown. But for the most part I have chosen to live authentically, not to punish myself, but to help others not to have my same life sentence, life without a family in it anymore.” Legend sighed, the tears so close to the surface, but the fascination portrayed on his son’s face was all the encouragement he needed to lead by example, to be the father now that he failed to be then.
“Something crazy happened recently. Just a week or less ago. I’ve been getting restless. It seems like there should be more, is what I’ve been feeling. I felt that way at the mission too; is there more? What am I missing? That’s when I moved on. I said it last week again. ‘There’s got to be more than this…’ I had just prayed to Jesus to show me what ‘more’ might mean.” Legend was crying openly, and even Trace was captivated by every word that was being shared. He blew his nose noisily on a napkin as he smashed himself against his own humanity. This was as real as it would get.
“You know, once I met Jesus for real in prison, I never stopped praying for you. For my family. I prayed every day, every opportunity you came to mind, I figured it was the Holy spirit reminding me you needed my prayers. Even if you never knew it. So I prayed that day for you, Annie, and for you kids, for all your lives held, and also, as I was thinking there had to be something more, that the Lord would direct my paths and lead me to where I could do and be more.
“Suddenly, there was this giant, this jerk, grasping and groping at this little boy with these piercing blue eyes like mine, and I didn’t even think a thing about it. I wanted that little boy to be safe and to know he didn’t have to endure treatment like that. The rest is history. His story, because God is using this to put my family back together. This is the ‘more’ I knew I was missing.”
Now all three adults were swiping at tears, wiping noses, especially when Trace piped up. “And you came back, Papa! You said you would! You came for me; you promised, Papa! And here you are now!”

To Be Continued…