Big Gulps With Troy

When I was young, I went through a pretty bad rebellious streak.

Although I had grown up in church, I started using drugs and walked away from God.

During this time, my youth pastor (Troy Jones) reached out to me.

He offered to pick me up from school once a week.

Not going home sounded good to me—so I agreed to hang out with Troy.

Troy was a college student at the time…

And he loved Big Gulps.

So, Troy picked me up from school each week and we’d head straight for 7-11.

We had Big Gulps together each week for a year.

That time with Troy—and the friendship that developed—made a huge difference in my life.

It wasn’t a program (our church had lots of those).

It was relationship.

Troy took time to be my friend.

He let me into his world, and he got into mine.

He redrew the line of his “circle of friends” to include me…

And I’m a different guy today because of it.

I wonder how many people are simply needing someone to redraw their “circle of friends line” to include them?

I know this: relationship makes all the difference.

Statistically, you can take two people, expose them to the same church, Bible teaching, program…

The one who has Christian friends will make it.

The one who doesn’t, won’t.

We need to enlarge our circle of love to include some sinners and strangers.

This is exactly what God has done for us.

“God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family… This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. You are no longer strangers. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.” (Ephesians 1.5, 2.19 NLT)

He redrew the circle to include us.

Let’s do the same.

Let’s enlarge our circle of love.

Redraw the lines today. Include someone, and be the friend they need.

I’m thankful Troy Jones took the time to get Big Gulps with me and become my friend.