Life Long Friend
Lee and I grew up together on the same street. On summer days we’d hop on our bikes and pedal down to Shaw’s pharmacy and spend our allowance on baseball cards and fire balls. We played countless basketball games at each other’s court, swam at the community pool and played on the same little league team.
We endured our parent’s divorce during our formative years, leaving us both on shaky ground. Neither of our father’s had the capacity to help us navigate manhood, so we did the best we could. We tried to live good lives, but eventually followed our friends into experimenting with smoking and drinking. Once this began, the tide took us deeper into drugs and other misdeeds.
Lee quit high school and joined the army. I went to college.
Searching for Joy
While in college, I pursued worldly pleasures I thought would bring me joy. I almost lost a scholarship my mother worked hard to secure. During fifty cent beer night, I was arrested for DUI. As I sat in jail, before my buddies bailed me out, I realized my life was on a downward trajectory. I knew I needed God, but didn’t know how to approach Him. My experience with ‘born again’ Christians seemed to be a life of joyless rules.
In the meantime, Lee was on a similar downward spiral. He landed in jail for drug possession in California. During the incident, he was introduced to Jesus Christ as a personal Savior, not a rule demanding kill joy. His life was truly changed and he couldn’t wait to tell me.
Lee’s Questions
One day, when Lee was on furlough and I was home for the weekend, he asked me, “Robby, do you think you’re going to heaven?
“Yea,” I replied.
“How do you know?”
“I believe in Jesus, like it says in the Bible,” I replied. “I haven’t killed anybody and I’ve lived a pretty good life.”
“But the Bible says you’ll know them by their fruit,” Lee responded.
This took me back. I certainly wasn’t living a life of good fruit.
“If you want joy.” Lee continued. “Your priorities need to be Jesus first, then others and finally yourself.”
“Lee, I’d need to clean my life up first before I could give my life to Jesus.”
“Do you take a bath before you take a shower?” he asked. “Jesus will accept a person exactly where they are.”
Life in Christ
My conversation with Lee was one of the primary seeds God used to bring me to my knees months later. In late summer of 1977, I admitted to the Lord I’d made a mess of my life. I accepted what He’d done on the cross on my behalf and received His life in exchange for my sin. I had no idea what to do next, but my life in Christ had begun.
Lee and I have remained close for almost 60 years now. We realize how rare our friendship is and we don’t take it for granted. It’s extremely comforting to have a bud who’s been in your life for as long as you can remember, especially when life gets hard.
Lee’s Cancer
I got a call from Lee last month informing me there is a lump on his chest. They’d be doing a biopsy soon to see if it’s cancerous. He seemed to be handling it well, but my heart sank. Not Lee. Lord, please not cancer.
The following week he found out he has breast cancer. He told me the plan is to be determined, but he didn’t want to waste this opportunity to magnify the Lord in this very difficult situation.
Lee’s Courage
Lee is one of my heroes. Not only did he care enough to share God’s good news with me, but he models what it looks like to care more about God’s glory than his own welfare.
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:18b-21 NASB)
He’s fighting to realize and walk in the fact that his well-being is tied to his closeness to God, not in his circumstances.
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works (Psalm 73:28 NASB).
From Lee’s Journal: 3/5/19 – The early morning awakenings, these are the toughest and yet they bring the most solace. It doesn’t seem I get a lot but I do get a little, and yet I desire more but even then I know not what.
My Prayer
Lord, I thank you for my friend Lee. I cherish his friendship over all these many years. In Christ, I have bold access to your throne. I know You’re able to heal Lee. Will You, please. Also, please honor his request to allow his cancer to glorify You. Use it to bring people closer to You. Draw near to Lee in the early morning hours when he needs to know You’re there. I pray these things in the faithful name of Jesus the Christ.
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