What Would You Change?


Today I met a man who is dying from AIDS. I don't want to use his real name because his family lives in this area. Let's call him Frank. This is the story that Frank shared with me:

Frank has had AIDS for many years, but recently was told that he is now terminal. When he was 20 he moved out on his own after years of abuse at home. He left because he felt like killing himself, but he didn't want to die. He eventually moved to California.

Frank never felt loved at home, so he turned to the streets looking for love. He found what he thought was love in the arms of another man. This led Frank into a lifestyle of homosexuality, going from one partner to another. Eventually he contracted AIDS.

Something happened to Frank about two years ago that changed his life. Frank met a 17-year-old boy while in the hospital. This boy knew Frank had AIDS, and while he never judged Frank's past he shared with him about Jesus. Frank accepted Jesus as his savior and for the first time in his life he felt love. He said he could feel it filling him up from the moment he prayed to Jesus for salvation.

Frank started going to church with this 17-year-old boy. He traveled 3 hours to attend his church...Saddleback Church in Anaheim. Frank enjoyed his experience there, but the drive was just too much. So he found a local church and started growing spiritually.

Today Frank witnesses every week to the same crowd he used to hang out with. Many of those who were his friends now hate him because he has told them that they can also change. He prays that his friends will come to Jesus before it is too late for them.

After Frank discovered that he was soon going to die, he decided that he needed to reconcile with his family. He caught a flight to Maryland to visit with them and arranged to have his medical care transferred to a doctor in the area. He felt that his family would want him nearby when he died.

Frank told his family his life story and as soon as he shared about accepting Jesus as his savior they grew angry. His family is very anti-religious and wanted to know why he couldn't just return to the gay guy that they all knew and were comfortable around. But Frank continued to share about how important knowing Jesus has become to him and that he would never leave Jesus for anything.

His family eventually kicked him out. Frank decided to return to California, but he had no transportation to the Amtrak since his family was no longer speaking to him. That is what led Frank to call me and ask for a ride.

During our ride, I asked Frank to share with me what he would tell his friends when they ask him how he could love God when God allowed him to get AIDS (he had already shared that many of his old friends felt that way). Frank replied, "That is easy for me. I tell them that we were all born into this world that has diseases and death. Nothing was going to change that. It was not God that gave him AIDS."

Then Frank told me that if God would offer to go back in time and change anything in his life, he would not want God to go back and prevent him from getting AIDS. He said that getting AIDS is the reason that he was willing to listen to that 17-year-old boy. AIDS is the reason that he came to know Jesus. Even if he could live another 100 years, it would be nothing compared to the eternity that he will have in heaven.

What about you? Would you wish for God to change anything in your past?

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