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Who's your best friend?

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I heard a message in church yesterday morning that reminded me of a particular client when I lived in Texas.

After I moved to Texas, I started up a little specialty advertising business. After a while, I picked up several Oil Field companies. I specialized in working with the safety departments custom designing items such as belt buckles with their logos on them, caps, knives, and many other gadgets. Through the years, I acquired quite a variety of clients.

I had this one client Chuck Maley, which was a lobbyist that worked with the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Austin. He would come by my showroom, and I would help develop ideas for the next campaign he would head up. We had a great working rapport and both of us profited from it. Not long after God arrested me and turned my life upside down, Chuck came by my office and noticed I had changed. He asked me what was up because I was not telling him my latest joke. When I told him about my experience, he seemed very disappointed. We talked a bit, and I told him how happy I was and how my business had begun to expand. A friend had given me an article that stated that Jesus wanted to be our best friend. When I told Chuck about that, he laughed at the idea but took the material with him after our appointment. I told him to think about it on his way to Austin, which was an hour and a half drive.

Time passed, and I hadn’t heard from ole Chuck for several months. Then one morning, he came busting in my office door without an appointment and a great big smile on his face. I asked him what was up, and this is what he related to me.

He said, “When you told me I could talk to the living God the same way I talked to my best friend, that’s what I did on my drive to Austin. Well, hell, God, it’s me, Chuck.”  I won’t tell you all the other curse words he used while communicating with God, but I can tell you this. His language did not seem to get in the way of giving his life over to the Lord. Nor did it appear to offend The Almighty! God looks on the heart. Chuck never cussed around me during any of our business sessions, but when he was on the job with the “good ole boys,” apparently, he would let it rip.

My dad once told me that I could consider myself a very fortunate person if, at the end of my life, I could count three real friends. I can say I have at least that many, but the one I can go to any time with anything is the one that found me. He chased me down until I surrendered, and it has been an exciting relationship. Jesus is my best friend, and I strongly recommend anyone of you that needs a friend to give Him a shout out….I know He will listen.