A while back before I left Sheboygan to start the CYE Missionary Internship in what, May of 2011, I was praying it up for my future husband. I felt very called to give something up. Yep.
Well, I'd just recently given up Burger King and Jimmy Johns for Lent (whilst also reading all of the Vatican II documents). Let's just get this straight.
I LOVE JIMMY JOHNS.
I'd decided to give it up for Lent that year when I found myself getting lunch there more than three times one week. So, naturally, I had to give it up.
Well Easter rolled around, and I was at it again. So, I was praying for my future husband like normal, and this idea to sacrifice something just popped into my head. so, I asked Jesus:
"What should I give up?"
The answer? "Jimmy Johns."
"Jimmy Johns? No. Anything but that."
"Jimmy Johns."
"Ok, but only for a little while, right?"
"No."
"How long?"
"Until you're engaged."
"WHAT?!?!?!?!111oneoneone"
"Jimmy Johns."
*Harrrrumph* "OK. But I'm going for the last supper right now."
"I see what you did there. Fine. Then, nothing."
"Fine."
So, I drove over to Jimmy Johns and walk in to be greeted by some teen hipster behind the counter. The conversation ensued thusly:
"Hi. Welcome to Jimmy Johns."
"Hi. Number 9, no onion, no oil, extra love."
"Why the extra love?" He chuckled.
"This is the last one I'll have for a very long time."
"Really? Why's that?"
"I'm giving it up for my future husband."
The kid shoots me a look that crosses the line between bewilderment and panic and replies, "WHY WOULD ANYONE EVER MAKE YOU DO THAT?!?!" as if the cosmos was going to explode or that I had an evil boyfriend somewhere oppressing me.
"No one's making me do this. I'm choosing it freely," I answered calmly. (Love is an act of the will.)
Hipster boy makes me the delicious sub then chucks it at me while trying to convince me:
"This is gonna be the best night of your life."
As I pluck the sub gracefully from the air, I retort:
"No. But my WEDDING NIGHT will be."
I turned around and heard his jaw hit the floor as I walked out.
EPIC WIN.
However.
One of my friends sent me a Christmas present some months later, and she didn't know about my Jimmy Johns fast. She sent me a gift card. GAH! Well, I didn't want to send it back. Besides, it was only $10. Perhaps I could buy something small and get change back. That's what usually happens. So, I went to the nearest one in Appleton and explained my plight. The high school n00b behind the counter said I could prolly buy a cookie and then get change. Well then, out of the recesses of the back room comes the manager. I explain it all again, and I'm just about crying. I don't want to waste the gift, and I don't want to break the fast. Well, manager says they can't give change back. And I say, "I really can't eat here. I just can't," and I'm almost crying. My heart, it ached.
GAH!
So, about a week later, I was so distracted by it that I decided just to get it over with. I got 2 subs: one for lunch and one for dinner. And, if there's a world record for fastest time consuming a Jimmy Johns sub, I think I hold it. I didn't enjoy eating them, and I felt horrible after. Gah! *shakes fist*
Good news. I've been Jimmy Johns free since then- and most everyone knows about my fast. This is much like my aversion to hugging, but a little different. Some tease because they're jerks who think I'm ridiculous.
Well, I am. I'm crazy about my future spouse, and I (will) love him more than Jimmy Johns. And this is just a way of preparing me for marriage. I can't have what I want all the time, and I'm going to have to give things up. For him. For us.
Totally worth it.
Happily (and technically (due to circumstances beyond my control)) Jimmy Johns free since May 17, 2011.
UPDATE:
Jimmy John's fast ended at approximately 5:47pm on April 6, 2015 due to becoming ENGAGED on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015!
St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Joseph, and St. Rita, PRAY FOR US!
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