Hardened

As he packed his bags and departed for school

He had only one thing in mind

He needed a girlfriend

It was not a decision he arrived at on a whim

He was just lonely

He had friends and roommates

They joke around, study together and talk but yet he always felt as if something was missing

He was not comfortable

He didn’t know the right word to describe it

The best term would probably be that he felt “incomplete”

He had tried talking to some ladies during his freshman year

But they were not the ones

He doesn’t really know the type of lady he was looking for

What he was sure of was that when he saw her, he would recognize her!

He got to school on a Saturday evening

The following morning, he went to his preferred campus fellowship

He was a born again Christian

He got born again the previous year on campus and joined the fellowship’s drama team immediately

After the service one of the fellowship leaders announced that fresh students who would like to join one department or the other should wait behind

The minister in charge of Drama had not resumed back on campus due to one reason or the other

He was asked to receive those who wanted to join the drama department

He stood just to the right of the fellowship leader making the announcement

Those who wanted to join one department or the other were instructed to walk towards those standing on the altar beside the fellowship leader holding placards with the name of their department on it

Seven people came out to join the drama team

He wrote down their names and told them when rehearsals and prayer meetings would be holding

Once he was done, he picked his Bible to head back to the hostel

Somebody called his name

He turned around

It was her!

She was everything he never knew he wanted until he saw with his own eyes

She was satisfaction!

She: Sorry Bro. So and so, I was trying to make up my mind which department to join earlier and couldn’t make up my mind on time but now I think I will like to join the drama team

He: Oh my God! (He held his heart with his two hands) You stopped my heart. What is your name?

She: Wow! You act so well. My name is Such and such

They were an instant hit!

She didn’t know how it happened, perhaps it was his enthusiasm and drive! His eyes were like crystal clear water inside her soul. She was a fresh student. Yet to have her first class and already deeply in love. It was not what she planned at all. She was 19 and determined to make a very good grade from the University

But the heart wants what it wants

She could have asked him to hold on, be her friend for a while but her heart wouldn’t even hear of such!

The relationship was good for the two of them

He became more comfortable and was able to settle into his academics without the niggling unsettled feelings of the previous year

She realized that with him, there was no joking around about academic laxity. He was determined to be the best in his class and thus spent most of his time studying. To enjoy his company as she desired, she had to study too

At the end of their first academic session together, they both had excellent results!

The following year they coordinated their resumption in such a way that they met at the motor park and travelled to school together

They had exchanged phone calls throughout the break

They missed each other sorely

They both live in different towns

His parents wouldn’t object if he brought her home or came to visit her at home

But her parents would kill her if she brought home a guy at the age of 20

She wouldn’t even dare mention to them that she would be going to a guy’s house even for a minute

How would she say such?

Her parent’s minds were shut tighter than the gates of hell

When she saw him at the motor park, she hugged him very tightly

She didn’t know when she started crying

Every minute without him had been pure torture

He felt exactly like she did

Like his heart was wrenched from him and he was walking about like a zombie

Another second without her was unthinkable

Though they had not been having any form of physical intimacy

The intensity of their love was scorching

They grew even closer during the first semester

As the semester wound down and Christmas break beckoned

They sat down to plot a way to see each other during the break

She told him there was nothing she could do about her parents

Once she gets home, she would practically be in prison until it was time for her to return to school

He told her to look for any opportunity, no matter how slim and give him a call

He will drive down to see her even at a minute’s notice!

They departed for the Christmas break

Five days to Christmas, her father travelled

She called her boyfriend

“My daddy will be out of town for five days, I will have some free time from 9am -5pm, when my mummy will return home from the office. Can you come over?”

He didn’t delay

Before he got to her city, she took a cab to a hotel and booked a room under his name

When he got to her city later that afternoon, she told him what she had done and she drove to the hotel and settled in

The next day, as soon as her mother left for work, she flew to the hotel

He waited for her at the restaurant downstairs but she didn’t want to take the risk that anybody her family knew would see her

She told him they would be safer in his room

He agreed

They went to the room

Two love birds sang in harmony

They talked and giggled and laughed

Then they kissed, their first kiss…

It was so rhapsodic!

They kissed again, the jaws wanted some, the neck wanted some, and the chest wanted some

The buttons fled at the wrath of the fingers

The fire burnt the bra’s clips and the bra

His lips sought the eyes on her chest

She surrendered all!

Neither of them could explain how their self-restraint, discipline, Holy Spirit, Bible studies, memorized scriptures, the fear of God, morality, fear of their parents, fear of consequences, voice of caution were buried under the collapse of the red sea

By the time they got to the other side of the sea

They had both swam to satisfaction!

Funny enough, they didn’t feel bad about it

They looked at each other, laughed and did it again

He was there for three days and all they did was dive into the deep end of the pool and count how many flips they could do

He returned home on the 23^rd of December

School resumed January 3^rd

She called him a day before school resumed, he didn’t pick her call

She got to school and found out he had arrived in school the previous day

She wondered what was going on

She kept calling his phone

He kept rejecting her call

She didn’t see him for a whole week

She was beside herself with misery

She couldn’t concentrate on anything

What was going on!

Sunday came, brother in Jeans and T-shirt was ministering

He had barely said a word

She saw her man running to the altar in tears

She didn’t get it

When service was over

An usher came to call her

“Brother in Jeans and T-shirt will like to see you”

She met her man there!

She didn’t know what was going on

Brother in Jeans and T-shirt told her to sit down

Her man said “She” led him into sin

Lured him to her town. Booked an hotel room and seduced him

Guilt was eating him up inside

He had wronged the Holy Spirit

He was sorry!

She didn’t feel that way at all

She didn’t understand why he had to expose their intimate moment as a couple to public scrutiny

They were both consenting adults

They were both Christians

Why was he acting all mush and spineless?

She didn’t plan what happened

It just happened

So what?

Brother in Jeans and T-shirt: I know you don’t understand what is going on here

She: I don’t brother so and so, if anything I feel ridiculed, embarrassed and insulted

Brother in Jeans and T-shirt: There are some things that Christian leaders without power say with words and end up wounding and offending the flock of God. Such things are meant to be said by the power and in the power of the Holy Ghost, Please come closer to me

She moved closer to the Brother in Jeans and T-Shirt

He put his left hand across her shoulder, laid his right hand on her head and said “Holy Spirit, please speak”

He released her

She couldn’t explain what happened

Something crashed inside her! She could hear the noise in her ears. It felt like the walls of Jericho coming down.

As it crashed in her heart, she screamed and crashed with it

She was sprawled on the floor for about five minutes

When she opened her eyes

She was crying

She really felt sorry for what they did, but not sorry in a dreadful, fearful way

She felt sorry in a warm, genuine, loving way

The type of sorry that heals

Brother in Jeans and T-shirt smiled

“Your heart was hardened but now it is free”

You will be able to understand the Holy Spirit now

He will no longer be a word or a theory in your head

He will be in your heart, where he rightfully belonged!

He will use the two of you mightily, your heart will guide you into doing his will continually

He blessed them and they left together in joy

PS: They never crossed that line again even though they were always together until they graduated

They got married four years after graduation (2012)

He is a pastor under a ministry

She is the Pastor in Charge of Teenagers and Young Adults under the same ministry

They are blessed with two children