As far as I can remember, David messaged me a day later saying "This might sound weird but did you add me and then cancel the friend request?" I turned red, my heart jumped out of my chest and took a lap around my house, and I again was left with this decision of being a friend or ignoring him. I chose to ignore him.
A few days later, I went to a Jonny Diaz concert where he performed They Need Love. Though I didn't see David as a man who had fallen from his faith, I was still convicted about every person's need for Christ's love in every stage of life. God spoke to me again that night but much more clearly. He wanted me to show grace to David and be a light in his life, show him what God's love looks like and the power His love has in our lives when we surrender to His will. I had no reason to be rude and cold to someone I didn't know and who was I to judge his character, especially based on someone else's opinion.
Don't read into my words like I did with other peoples'. David was saved by grace through faith just like me and just like every other Believer. But in the same breath, he was wandering just like many Christians today. He was trying to find God's will for his life and got stuck in a rut of living life without intention, which lead him to friendships that weren't pointing him to Christ. We ALL have wandered and we ALL have felt lukewarm in our faith.
He never walked away from his faith, he served in ministry religiously when his faith seemed weakest, when his Brothers and Sister's in Christ caused him the most pain. His heart never turned cold against children or the elderly. He just stopped seeing the love of Christ from his fellow believers.
It became all about pointing out his flaws rather than pointing him back to the One who died for his flaws.
So in faith I walked in what I believe was God's convictions on my heart and will for my future and I replied to David's message.
The following days were filled with outpouring of both of our hearts. I wanted him to see me not as another fellow Christian who holds a place of judgement in his life but as a Sister in Christ who has had a desire to see him turn back to the Father with a fervent love for His Savior. I am a sinner just as he is. I remember asking him "If we don't recognize our sin, how can we come to the point of realizing our need for a Savior?" His tone change in his messages. It was almost like with each day, each verse, each word of encouragement, his spirit was lifted. When his heart was burdened by questions and the inability to move on from his past, I would type out my prayers. He needed to know someone cared, he needed to feel God's loving arms wrap around him as he was lifted in prayer.
There came a day when I stopped replying and instead poured out my heart to the Lord. I needed to see Him in David's heart. I knew He was there but I needed to see David take his faith and run toward God, leaving the past hurt behind. God heard me and David sent me a message the next day. It wasn't small talk, it wasn't the normal "What's up? How are you?" It was "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." He then said that he was leaving the past behind and wanted to see life again in the way that I had been showing him. He was turning a new leaf.
There is nothing more beautiful than watching a child run back into the arms of a loving father.
God met me where I needed Him. He gave me the peace I needed to keep walking in faith. I will never forget that feeling in that moment...because in that moment, with joyful tears running down my face, I knew, I loved David.
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