Break my heart a thousand times over: part 1
It all began in Byron Bay, Australia. The boy that broke my heart. I didn’t know it could hurt so much. I met him in the most unexpected place in the most unexpected way. Who knew I could love a stranger in such a short time to this magnitute?
Just like any other day, I walked 45mins into town in the Australian heat with little shade for relief. Walking by the beach Michelle and I saw our friend Xavier, a homeless guy in his 20s, and invited him to lunch. We threw out suggestions of mildly nice restaurants, but he said no. Then we realized what was going on and asked him to go to Dominos and he happily agreed. Jake, another racer, came along.
We got to the counter to order our pizza and a boy with the brightest eyes and the most gentle smile greeted us. I read his name tag and introduced myself. We immediately started up a lengthy conversation right in the middle of Dominos. Daniel is 18, loves to surf, plays in a hard rock band, and has lived in Byron his entire life. As the conversation progressed Daniel told me that some people believe that there’s something spiritual about surfing in the barrel of a wave which opened the door for me to ask him about his beliefs. Daniel is an atheist, but when I told him my beliefs he seemed to be very open.
God works in unexpected ridiculous ways. I would have never thought that ordering a pizza would bring me a friend that I dearly care for.
Needless to say the rest of the month I ate a lot of pizza. ha! I, in a mildly uncreepy stalkerish way, visited him and took him post cards with Bible verses and a personal note on them. I kept my end of the deal and bought a cheap surfboard and learned to surf! (Don’t worry it was really cheap. I’m trying to be a good steward of my personal money) He kept his end as well.
Everytime I went to visit he was so excited to see me. Daniel said most people just order their food and treat him like an object, but I treated him like a person. He said he liked to pray when he went surfing because it was peaceful. One day he went surfing and a guy was intentionally hitting his shins with the board. Daniel was getting really mad and wanted to yell at the guy, but then started to pray and it calmed him down. He just paddled farther out and wasn’t angry. I told him that was funny because for some reason I was praying and reading in the Bible about loving your enemies and loving those who wrong you. I don’t know if it was the exact moment that that happened, but it was around the same time.
I asked him if he had been reading the Bible. As I suspected, he hadn’t. He thought he might have one somewhere, but I wanted to make sure so after praying about it and I let him use my Bible. My Bible is filled with my thoughts, folded pages, and underlined verses. I hoped he would at least read what was underlined.
Before leaving Australia, I felt like God wanted me to buy Daniel a Bible so I did. I wrote a message in the front and gave it to him. The last time I saw him I asked him if he had any questions about the Bible. He only had one…and it almost brought me to tears…”Why is some of the Bible in red?” I told him it was when Jesus spoke.
So many times I assume people know about God and the Bible because I grew up in church, but if you were never told about it how would you know? There are so many people who have never opened a Bible. Byron is like America it’s not an unreached area, but that doesn’t mean people know who God is. Just because we live in America doesn’t mean your coworkers, classmates, neighbors, or family know about Noah, Moses, Jesus…
It was hard leaving Daniel. It broke my heart knowing he still didn’t believe in Jesus. I can’t convey how deeply it hurt. A huge lesson I re-learned was I plant seeds, but God is the only one that can make them grow. God doesn’t need me to tell Daniel about Jesus. It’s not about me. I’m just a puzzle piece and I may never see the puzzle complete, but I have to be okay with that. I know God will bring other Christians in his life and one day, one day Daniel will live for Christ. One day I will see Daniel again if not on this Earth in heaven.
This divine planned appointment by God had nothing to do with me. Everything I did was not for my glory, but God’s.
Day 15 was long gone and he was still praying. I’m going to try to continue sending him post cards…
