Good Will Hunting

Last week, one of my friends celebrated another birthday.  He lives in Texas, so I sent him an email with a couple birthday queries:  What are you doing to celebrate?  What's one thing you loved about last year?  What's one thing you're looking forward to this year?

His response was cheerful and full of things that were more or less expected... meeting up with friends to celebrate... loved finally landing his dream job at the Department of Justice ... looking forward to doing two criminal trials....  The usual.  But then my eyes landed on the last sentence in his response to Question 3:  "I am also looking forward to having a closer relationship and understanding of Christ."

In my heart, I smiled.  And on my face, I grinned.  And in my head, I thought, What the--?

I've known this friend since 2007, when I worked under him at my old law firm.  He was super-intense (still is) and I was super-intimidated, but I enjoyed working with him.  If anyone I know loves the field, the work, the art of law--it's this friend.  We got to know each other as boss/underling, and as the weeks passed by, that slipped into more of a mentor/mentee thing.  By the end of the summer, we were friends.  

The first time I realized that we had become friends was late one evening when we were both in the office, working together on our pro bono brief.  He came into my office without announcement, slumped into one of my guest chairs, buried his head in his hands, and murmured, "I have a headache."  With that admission of his feeling/being something short of super-awesome, we ushered in a new age of friendship.  Since that time, although we have rarely been in the same city, we have bonded and helped each other with numerous career-related anxieties and relationship issues (more his than mine).  He came to our wedding.  I visited him while on business in Texas.  I went to his special 30th birthday dinner with a very select group of his family/friends/judge.  

Through all of these years of friendship--especially the early years--I never hid my faith.  He knew what I was.  He knew who I thought Jesus was. He knew who I wanted Jesus to be to him.  ... But he gently mocked me, calling me a goody-goody, taking little jabs at claims of the Bible... that's just what I came to expect with him.  I didn't really mind...so it goes with the lost.  But, like his mom, I prayed for him--kind of.  I'm not sure I really believed God would ever change him.

Then he moved to Texas.  And his judge there is a devout Christian.  Things started to change in the way he spoke about God.  And amid his career-direction crisis that followed, he began to ask me to pray for him.  Every time he asked me to pray for him, I marveled at the work that God was doing.  Could it really be?

Yes, it can really be.  Several years have since passed.  He is looking forward to growing in his knowledge of Jesus and deepening his relationship with his Lord.  I am amazed at God's ongoing work, and more than a little ashamed that I didn't trust Jesus more.  I am inspired again to pray--with belief, please!--that God can change the hearts of whomever He so chooses.  The people I think will never turn to Jesus just might one day, with His help.

Praise God for His faithfulness and for His ongoing work in all of our lives.  And happy birthday to my dear friend -- my brother.