Jesus Wants to be Your Friend

I love watching The Journey Home on EWTN.  This program features men and women who somehow made "the journey" from atheism, agnosticism, Pentecostalism, Calvinism, Mormonism, or nothingnessism, etc. and who eventually found their way into Catholicism.  The reason I love this program is that I love watching how God works in people's lives, no matter where they are, where they begin.  I love hearing the story unfold of how they moved from wherever they begin; I love all the questions and struggles along the way; and I love the peace and joy they exhibit in telling the story.  Some of the guests were raised Catholic, left the church for a time, and eventually returned with a new set of eyes and new appreciation. 

Last night's guest was Kurt Hoover, a young man who was raised in the Wesleyan Church.  His journey of faith began when he was four years old and in Sunday school.  His teacher told the class that Jesus wanted to be their friend, and if they wanted Him as their friend, they had to tell Him so.  Even at four years of age, that made an impression on Kurt, so that night while his family was watching television, we went into a darkened hallway and there he told Jesus that he wanted Jesus to be his friend, and he asked Jesus to come into his heart. "And He Did!," Kurt exclaimed with a smile.  He didn't quite know how, but something was different from that day forward. 

Kurt's journey was, like so many others told on this program, a story of the Holy Spirit working in one life, gradually unfolding from point to point.  This was not the first time that I heard a story of the Holy Spirit working even in a little child, but what was so impressive about this story was that Kurt's mother died when he was ten, and he was left without a mother from that point on.  His father was very good, a very spiritual man, but he was struggling with his own grief and had to grow through it too.  Without knowing Jesus as his "friend," Kurt would have been totally alone.  His story can be found on chnetwork.org.

So many stories tell of God reaching out, leading, guiding, strengthening in hundreds of different ways.  He does not leave us alone, to our own devices.  He is forever wanting to be our Friend, if we will but ask.