Growing up I was not the best child. Actually, I was probably one of the worst. I was into everything I shouldn’t have been because I was rebelling due to my parents nasty divorce. And like any child going through something like that I just wanted attention. I wanted to be noticed.

My best friend growing up who we’ll call Lindsey for sake of her privacy, was just as wild and crazy as I was. We ran around town just causing mischief. We would take For Sale signs out of people’s yards and put them in their neighbor’s yard. We’d spray paint outlines of our bodies in the street to look like dead bodies. We’d fill a sandwich bag full of parsley, oregano (looked like a bag of pot) and drop it in front of a gas station door then park to watch people’s reactions. We were two peas in a pod. But as we got older we went our separate ways as so many people do. I was in school trying to better myself and she was a high school drop out at the age of 16. Our likes and interest changed and as a result we haven’t hung out in many few years. I still love her and will always cherish the friendship we had.

Lindsey is one of the most blunt and inappropriate friends I have ever had. Which is one of the reasons I loved her so much. She told people how it was, how she felt, and didn’t sugar coat anything which I appreciated in my teenage years. I’d grown up in a home with parents who kept us in the dark about most things so I felt like I never knew what the truth really was. Everyone was always tip toeing around myself and my siblings and it would drive me bonkers. So you can see why I cherished this girl so much. She was a straight shooter and cared for me like I was her little sister. I will never forget being in a store with her and we ran into a man and his 2 daughters shopping. I’m not sure how we started talking to him but he mentioned that he was the only male in his home with 3 daughters and his wife. Lindsey, without hesitation said, “well you must have to wear a tampon to fit in at your house!” His face was priceless. My face was priceless. The only person who thought absolute nothing of it was my insanely blunt friend Lindsey.

As an adult she has not made the best choices. She continued to go down a road of drugs and alcohol which is one of the main reasons we no longer hang out. She jumps from boyfriend to boyfriend in hopes of someone loving her like she wants to be loved. Recently she split from her fiance and started a downward spiral. I was receiving phone calls from multiple friends asking me if I’d spoken to her and what her Facebook post were all about and who is this new guy she claims to be seeing. I was worried and concerned because I don’t get on FB anymore so I was unsure of exactly how crazy and bad it was. One of my friends told me some of her post were so grotesque it actually made her want to vomit. I thought to myself I need to call her. I need to check on her and find out if she’s okay. Then I thought, well I don’t really want to get involved in that drama. She’s never been religious, close to God or anything. Plus she’d never listen to me about what I had to say about God or how my life has been changed because of him.

Then it happened. The whisper. “Tell Everyone”. In the middle of my thought that she would never listen to me or believe what I had to say about my experience with God I hear, ever so gently, “Tell Everyone”. He spoke to me. It was so quick and again right in the middle of a thought that I stopped and just cried. He wants me to “tell everyone” about him. How he saved me. How much he loves me. How he is the only way, the truth, and the light!  God has spoken to me through other people, through his word, through music and devotionals. But nothing, like this. It was the first time I heard the whisper. So as any obliging child does I immediately called her. And called her. And messaged her. And messaged her again and again. She was not answering nor returning my phone calls. I finally sent a message through FB and told her I was going to bug her until she answered. After a few more attempts, she finally responded through messenger. We messaged back and forth and I shared my experience with God and he saved my life. I told her that the love she’s been searching for in all these men is love that only God can give her and wants to give her. I invited her to church with me, which she has still yet to come. But I know she will. It may be next week, next month, maybe even next year. But, I will not give up on her or anyone else that needs to know Jesus Christ. I’ve been called to “Tell Everyone”. So I will, again and again.