I get there and meet everyone in the lobby just like I would any other week. Just going through the motions like I typically would, and for some odd reason this particular week I did not have as much as excitement to be there like weeks past. But God had me there that night for a reason.
This reason was in the form of about 6'5'' skinnier body type 17 year old boy with a birthday coming up soon. He was a cross-country runner, played football, and enjoyed basketball. The exact same things I was involved in at his age. I immediately took notice of this and was thinking and praying for this kid the entire time as we all sang and I clicked through slides.
Now I am going to be completely honest here. I have never lead anyone individually to Christ. Yes, the kid in bible college has never done what he intends to do as his career before!
With that said, I have always felt like I was not "good enough" to do so or that I did not know enough about the bible to share my faith with others. I have told others that I was a christian and even prayed with others in my work parking lot, but never shared the gospel specifically with anyone.
Back to that night, Tommy my bible study spoke about being broken and how Christ heals those that are broken multiple times in the beginning of Mark. He used the image of fondant and breaking it down and molding it back together with water representing Christ.
These kids are broken, we are ALL broken. We can not be fixed by anything but the blood of Christ. At times we can think to have it together like the fondant is but eventually pieces fall off. But when you have Christ (water) it holds everything together and smooths away our cracks in our lives and pasts.
My new 6'5'' buddy sits down beside me to eat dinner after this talk by Tommy, to eat pizza. We were just small talking, wasting time as we ate.
And then I said to him, "You're a lot like me."
He said, "How's that?
I began to tell him how I ran cross country, played football, etc. And how I also tried to fill the cracks in my life with different things, be it alcohol, friends, or girlfriends. But it never worked. He nodded in agreement. He told me earlier on in the night that we wanted to get better and live better. I asked him, so you're trying to live your life right aren't you? I explained to him how we can't do this on our own and we need the help of Christ to do so.
I really enjoy analogies and think it explains things much better at times. I said to him, Ok so we're running a race. (it seemed fit since we were both runners) I said at times there is going to be people cheering for you and wanting you to do well. But also there's going to be people cheering against you and wanting you to walk or take the wrong path. We must keep running on the correct path in our lives, we may step in holes or even have to jog but we must keep running towards the finish. The finish line is the greatest of all prizes, it's Heaven. I showed him the verse in Philippians 3:14, and his face lit up as he got it. And he just smiled.
At this time, it was time to start cleaning up and for them to go back to there rooms, but I asked him if we could pray together. I told him that he can live right and run the race to Heaven if he just told God he wanted to change his ways and live for him. He said how do I do that? I said just tell him in a prayer. He said ok will you pray that for me? I told him it's not between me and God, it's you and God. So he prayed in broken words. "God I want to live for you and stop living the ways I have been and I thank you for Kegan talking and telling his story to me tonight."
I share this story for two reasons. One to pray for our new brother in Christ, as he soon leaves this place and go back into the world and his old temptations. I pray that he runs the race to one day meet us at the finish line.
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