“To those who have been hurt by the Church, I say this. I truly and sincerely apologize. I am sorry for every time a church family member has made you feel unwelcome. I am sorry for every moment you felt like an outsider, an inconvenience, anannoyance, or a mistake among the people who should have embraced and cherished you the most.”
His voice was quiet now, but the emotion behind it was powerful.
“To that young woman, and to anyone else who has ever felt cast out by their own brothers and sisters in Christ—I tell you now, as your pastor, as your friend, as your family in Christ—you belong here. And no one—no one—has the right to tell you otherwise.”
Beth swallowed hard, the knot in her throat threatening to choke her.
His gaze once again swept across the room, this time seeming to linger on the choir loft for a moment.
“Family, this is the hardest part of what I need to say. If we cannot welcome the broken, then we as a church do not understand the Gospel. Because Christ did not come for the righteous. He came for the sinners. He came for you. He came for me.”
Silence engulfed the sanctuary.
Pastor Ambrose let the words settle before picking up his Bible again.
“Now, shall we continue with our series on “The Life of David?
Please turn your Bibles to 2 Samuel 13.”
Coming from work, Kim arrived late and quietly sat down in the seat next to Bryce. Reaching past him, she squeezed Beth’s leg and whispered, “Did I miss anything?”
Beth just let out a breathy laugh, shaking her head.
“You have no idea.” Bryce answered quietly.
CHAPTER 20
Lunchat her parents’ house was quieter than usual. Kim joined them, but Lynn never showed—outside of a text to Beth asking for a raincheck on wedding dress shopping—her absence heavy in the air. Everyone did their best to keep the conversation light, but after Bryce shared the details of what had happened in the fellowship hall—even though he hadn’t witnessed it firsthand—the weight of the morning pressed down on them again.
Beth kept her head up, kept her smile in place. She was fine. At least, that’s what she told herself.
Still, she caught herself rubbing at her chest more than once, the echoes of Pastor Steve’s sermon settling deep in her bones.
“If we cannot welcome the broken, then we as a church do not understand the Gospel.”
After everything that happened, Beth had planned to go home and find comfort in the familiar—maybe take a long bath, put on pajamas, and curl up on the couch with a silly RomCom. Something light. Something easy.
Then she remembered.
She had agreed to spend the night at Bryce’s loft.
A single, sharp thought lodged itself in her chest.
This is really happening.
Moving in was no longer some abstract plan for the future. Yesterday, she’d been caught up in the romance of Bryce’s proposal and his desire to have her close. Yesterday, Beth had convinced herself it was a good idea to slowly ease into life at the loft, spending a few nights there and a few at the apartment. A gentle transition.
But now, staring down the reality that she wouldn’t be sleeping in the apartment she’d shared with Kim for years… it didn’t feel small. It felt massive.
“I slept in a grass hut before—how bad could one loft be?” she tried to reason. Yet the moment she stepped into her bedroom to pack, the doubt returned in full force.
Beth looked around at the suitcase lying open on her bed,half-filled, and a lump rose in her throat. This wasn’t a weekend trip. It wasn’t a sleepover.
She was leaving.
That realization sent a fresh wave of emotion crashing over her. She hated that out of the three natural instincts—fight, flight, freeze—she usually fell into one of the latter two. It was a constant mental battle to override that default, and a small, unwelcome part of her feared that someday, she wouldn’t win.
The only time she didn’t freeze or want to run was in the face of physical injury. Bruises and bleeding she could treat. Emotional wounds? Those were proving to be harder.
