"Yes, ma'am," Jeremy said.

"And to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

After a pause, she said, “God’s purpose, Jeremy. You know they're going to be looking for a new pastor.”

I leaned back a little. The way Mother Logan said those words was like she wanted Jeremy to consider the position. What was she thinking?

But then, my friend nodded like that had been something on his mind, too. Now, I wanted to know what he’d been thinking?

Mother Logan winked at him before she grabbed her cane and then wobbled her way out of the church.

I waited until she was all the way through the doors before I asked, "What was that about?"

“What do you mean?”

“She winked at you like you two share a secret.”

With a sigh, Jeremy took my hand and we walked to his car. But he didn’t open the door for me. He leaned against his eleven-year-old Nissan Sentra and I did the same, knowing that move meant he wanted to talk. We didn’t have much time — a minute or so and then, the people would be pouring from the church.

Finally Jeremy said, “I've been feeling this calling. A tug, if you will. It's like God has been saying to me ‘get ready’.”

"Get ready for what?"

He didn’t look at me as he shook his head. "I don’t know. That’s why I hadn’t said anything about it to you. But I’ve been hearing that over and over.” He pushed himself from the car, turned and looked straight into my eyes. “But now, I think He meant get ready for this. I think He meant for me to get ready to take Reverend Robinson’s place.”

My mouth opened wide. "Jeremy, how can you do that when you’re only twenty-one, still in school, and you’re not even next in line. Reverend Lewis is the assistant pastor, you’re the youth pastor.” I felt like he needed all of those reminders.

“Well, we’re about to graduate, so I won’t be in school any longer and Reverend Lewis doesn’t want to lead this church.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because in the ministers meetings, he’s always talking about going back to Los Angeles. He doesn’t like the South.”

“Okay, but what about graduate school?” I asked as another reminder. “You’ve always said you wanted your Masters of Divinity since your Bachelors is going to be in Mass Communications. You’ve even talked about getting your Doctorate, remember?” I asked because he was acting like he’d knocked every practical thought from his mind.

He shook his head. “There are plenty of pastors in this country who don’t have degrees. At least I will have one.”

“But you’ve already been accepted to Howard and Duke.”

Now, he shrugged as if my words didn’t matter. “And all of that, those are my plans, but God’s plans are greater.”

There was no way for me to debate God, so I brought it back down to man. “Do you really think the board would consider you for this?”