Waking up at four this morning with a nudge, well more of a sense of urgency to pray for some people, I went to my balcony and began praying- naming individuals and the situations they find themselves in before the Lord.
I went back to bed at 6, and slept til 8. I love Saturdays!
Checking my email, I again found a rather surprising note from someone I have not seen in nearly eleven years! I dated her back in college. The power of suggestion ruled in that season of my life. I knew I should not date anyone "outside the faith" but I did anyway in obedience to the power of suggestion! As a matter of confession, I dated short of a dozen girls in my life, but all of those relationships were committed to honoring God through purity at my behest and by His grace. I have shared the Gospel with all five who weren't Christians, except for this one. For some reason, I failed in my resposibility to share with her the message of salvation, perhaps because she kept claiming that she attends a Methodist Church with her sister which somehow "freed" me from the responsibility thinking her sister or her exposure to Methodism would somehow get the Gospel message across.
This is how she and I met. I was junior editor of the school paper, just a few months before I joined an exchange program. She was staff photographer. She admitted on our second date that she used to just observe me work on stories and edit materials, watch me express myself in Masscom 530 Class, see me lead Bible studies under the mangoe tree. While I never noticed her until my Senior Editor pointed her out to me one busy afternoon as she arranged a photo collage for August issue.
Well, my Senior Editor simply said, "Jon, I want you to cover some highlights of The Arts and Sciences Week with her! You write, she'll take pictures." I never had so much fun covering an entire event. That led to one friendly lunch, and then a friendly dinner. We became a team-- partners at work! we were buddies! I knew she was dating this cool Andy Garcia look-alike guy so I didn't think anything romantic was bound to happen between us. One late afternoon following an event, we were waiting for the bus when someone we both knew walked to us and said, "I always see you two together. You're getting serious with your new girlfriend huh, Jon?" in hopes of explaining myself, I said, "We're just friends! And that's all we will be!" The guy walked away. When I turned to her, she was in tears! "Are you not feeling well? Would you like me to bring you to the clinic?" I asked. "No! Why do you care? I'm just your friend!"
She walked away. I ran after her. She turned to me and said, "Stop following me!"
The next day, as I finished my story on the "Mr & Ms Arts and Sciences Pageant," my Senior Editor poured coffee into my mug saying, "I'll never have Jon. A friend. That's all I'll ever be." Knowing that he was gay, I stood, smiled and said, "I hope you're not hitting on me, I like girls and I'm a Christian! Please step aside!" He laughed and said, "No..no..no..I'm just repeating what she told me last night over the phone!" I knew he was talking about her. I totally forgot they were best friends! He went on to say, "She broke up with W------ a week ago because she thought she was getting closer to having you!" That was when I considered asking her out.
We broke up after a few months! She stopped going to school, not because of me but because of something else. I learned of some poor choices she made, for which I felt sorry. A few days after I got back from the exchange program, she was back in school. We saw each other on campus a couple of times but we never really got to talk. Then she moved to another school.
A few months ago, she emailed me saying "sorry." This morning, I opened my email and a new note was there from her, "I know it's been a while, but I want to say again, 'I'm sorry.' It may not be important to you, but for me it is. I am really sorry."
I write this with her permission.
She was among those I named in my prayer this morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment