On Thursday night, my view of sacrificial faith completely changed. I sat across a 14 year old boy named David as he told me his story. I asked his permission that I write a blog about him. I knew that his story could completely change lives back in America, so after I explained what a blog was, he gave me permission.
This is David’s story:
When David was a young boy, his father passed away. He was left with his mother and two younger sisters. He grew up in a Buddhist home, worshipping a stone Buddha statue. Throughout his primary school years, he was introduced to Jesus because the principal at his school was a Christian. In 4th grade, David asked Jesus into his heart. He started believing in a living god; the only living God.
From that moment on, he dedicated his life to Christ. Four years later, he continually makes it a priority to pray and read his Bible every night. What makes his story beautiful is the sacrifice he has to go through to be a Christian.
As the only Christian in his family, he gets in trouble if his mom sees him praying to Jesus or reading his Bible. Instead of upsetting her, he waits until everyone goes to sleep in his house to read his Bible. He told me that even if he is really tired, he would rather read than go to bed without being in the Word. Every Sunday, he tells his mom that he is going to a friend’s house, but in reality, he rides his bike a really long distance to get to church. (He actually apologized to me at this point because he knows he is lying to his mom which is a sin, but he doesn’t know what else to do because he wants to go to church)
He has a few friends who believe in Jesus and have similar family backgrounds, but he explained that despite having a few Christian friends, he gets made fun of a lot at school. People are rude to him if he starts talking about Jesus. He said that it’s hard, but he still wants others to know about Jesus, so he continues to talk about Him.
This kid sacrifices sleep, time, family, and friends for Jesus. Do you? If you disappointed your family, if people made fun of you, if you had to ride your bike miles and miles in the Cambodian heat and humidity to get to church, would you still follow Jesus?
I ask these questions because they convicted me. This one conversation with an 8th grade boy made me reevaluate everything about my faith. Through David, I learned what utter dependence on the Lord looks like. That even if everything was taken away from him, even if believing in Jesus was hard, he will never walk away. For David, Jesus is worth the sacrifice because for Jesus, David was worth the sacrifice. The sacrifice of His own life. The sacrifice that meant death on a cross.
What a love.
If you’re reading this blog, I don’t want to shame you for not making sacrifices. That is not my intention at all. I just want you to ask yourself: is Jesus worth it?
David seems to think so. If a 14 year old boy in Cambodia seems to think that giving up things on earth for Jesus is worth it, then this Jesus guy must be pretty amazing. There must be something about Him that makes it worthwhile.
If you want to know what that is, you can email me. Message me on Facebook, iMessage me, FaceTime me, send a pigeon. I don’t really care. I would just really love to tell you more about Jesus and the love He has for you.
