I am currently on the island of Culebra, P.R., and it is gorgeous. I have met some really cool people at the place I am staying, and I have done a ton of surfing. The guy who runs the establishment likes to have a surfing buddy, so I am more than happy to oblige. The picture is our little surf shack where we keep our stuff when we hit the waves.
However, once again I am not writing to share about these things but to share an experience I had on the way to the island.
It was Saturday, and I was traveling from San Juan to Culebra with four friends. We were currently waiting at a bus stop when this middle-age man comes walking/stumbling down the sidewalk. He and I make eye contact, and I can tell he is thinking about sitting for a while. I say to myself, "Please just keep walking." But of course, he asks to sit next to me. He starts talking to me, and I can tell he is either a little hungover or drunk. We discuss that basics of "where are you from?" and "what do you do?" stuff. His name is Jason. He tells me he is a police chief at the airport and that his wife is there too. He said it was love at first sight when he saw her. I somehow got the impression that it was just love for him and that he hadn't told her yet that he wanted her to be his wife.
Then, for some reason, Jason wants to start sharing from his heart. I can't remember all the stuff he said because it really didn't make sense, but he did say that the people at the airport didn't like him because they thought he drank too much.
"Do you think you drink too much?" I asked.
He procedes to pull out a bottle of rum from his right pocket (it's 8:00 in the morning), and says, "Maybe so."
Then he get this deep-philosophical look and says that he "lives to die, and dies to live." I had no clue what that meant, but I responded by saying, "Why don't you live to live?"
Jason said, "Yea, that sounds cool." At this time my other friends say that a bus is coming and we have to leave soon.
In the short time left, I say that true living can only come from Jesus. Amazingly, Jason says, "Well, I have a Bible," and pulls a small Bible out of his left pocket! Unbelievable! Rum in one pocket and a Bible in the other.
I ask to share with him one of my favorite verses, and he hands me the Bible. I flip to John 14:6 and read it to him.
Now the bus has arrived, and as I am putting on my backpack I tell him to read John 10:10 also. He seemed a little confused how to find the verse. So I said it's just a few pages earlier in chapter 10, verse 10.
We say our goodbyes and I walk to the bus. I turn around to wave, and he is staring at me yet kind of looking through me with this very interesting look on his face. It was a mixture of astonishment and grief yet joyful, because he had a big, goofy smile on his face.
Once again, God blesses me with unforgetable encounters like these even when I am not at all looking for them. I hope this story touches or inspires you, because it sure did to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment