Cedric Takes A New Direction

Amy and I wanted to do some fishing so we went to a local hamburger place. We thought we had our fish picked out but the hostess seated us on the other side of the restaurant. When I asked if we could sit on the other side she still didn’t take us where we thought she would. We decided we might just be in the place we were supposed to be. As we sat down we noticed there was not a soul near us. Amy looked a little disappointed, but I told her that we always had the waitress to talk to. She smiled. The hostess told us the waiter would be with us in a moment.

As our waiter approached us we could see he was very friendly. He introduced himself as Cedric and smiled broadly. We could tell he was very efficient and seemed to like people. I don’t remember how the subject came up but he told us that he believed in giving 100% and that he was a bit of a perfectionist. He took our drink orders and asked if we had any questions for him. I told him I did but this question was a very deep one and would require much thought. Straightening himself to his full height he stopped and took a deep breath. I could tell he was serious. I asked him if he would want to be warned if Hell were a real place. With a stunned look on his face, he quickly sat down next to Amy. He told us that he knew that Hell was real and that he was going there. He said he knew that God was not pleased with his lifestyle and that he prayed everyday that God would give him a love for women instead of men. We talked about God’s standard of perfection and how we have all broken it and then Cedric digressed by stating that he had never done anything really bad like murder. We went over the Law of God again and Cedric admitted that God would find him “guilty” and he was destined for Hell.

He told us that he had a lot to “clean up” before God would accept him. We told him that God catches the fish first and then cleans them. I asked him to define what stood between him and God and why he wouldn’t just ask God to save him now. He told us that he had 2 sons who were not living right and that he had to get them on the “right road”.
I said, “How can you do that when you’re not even on the right road?”
“Yeah…yeah….I know what you mean.”
“Cedric, Jesus is trying to reach out to you but you have your hands full of things you are trying to straighten up and you can’t take His hand because you won’t let go!”
Amy told Cedric about the thief on the cross not having time to clean up his act before coming to Christ.
He agreed with this but said, “I pray to Him every day and thank Him for my life and ask Him to help me.” Intermittently Cedric would quote scripture to us-he knew it!

“He will not hear your prayers, Cedric.”

He hung his head and stopped.

“Cedric, one of these days you are going to take your next breath in Hell and there will be no escape.”

He hugged himself, closing his eyes and said that I wasn’t the first person to tell him that. He told us that when he was 4 years old his great-grandmother sat him down and told him that God had something special for Cedric to do and that he would have to find out what that was. He also told us that up until one month ago he had been homeless.
I asked him again what was stopping him from surrendering to Christ right this moment- letting go of everything and coming to God. He stopped…then suddenly took our hands in his and bowed his head. He prayed a beautiful prayer of repentance and surrender to God, then thanked Him for sending Jesus to pay for him. After he was finished he wiped tears from his eyes and said, “I don’t know how to describe to you what I am feeling…I feel so “light”!!” Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?



Amy and I were so excited that we started passing out Million Dollar Bills to all of the other customers, but we didn't really expect what happened next!!